In collaboration with the Scotland-China Association, we are pleased to announce our first exhibition of the year, featuring images from legendary Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921). This exhibition will display photos from Thomson's journey through China in the late 19th century, using the wet-collodian process onto glass negatives, and produced a wide range of images representing the land and people in their daily lives. These images contributed towards solidifying Thomson as a pioneer in photo-journalism, offering the widest range of images of the Far East during the Victorian Period. 

As part of our exhibition, we will be hosting a day of talks on the 10th of February. Curator Betty Yao will give a tour of the gallery and discuss John Thomson's works. The tour will be followed by a conversation between photographer Norman McBeath and poet Robert Crawford about their book Chinese Makars. More information and tickets for the event can be found on Eventbrite.

 

Chinese Makars includes Scots versions of work by several poets or 'makars' from the classic era of Chinese poetry. The Scots version of the poems by Robert Crawford are paired with duotone black and white photographs by the pioneering Victorian photographer John Thomson and the contemporary photographer Norman McBeath.

 

Artist Bio - 

John Thomson was born in Edinburgh in 1837 and began to learn the scientific principles of photography in the early 1850s as an apprentice to a maker of optical and scientific instruments. He also spent this time attending classes at the Watt Institution and School of Arts. As a photographer and travel writer he set off for Asia in 1862 and over the next ten years he undertook numerous journeys photographing countries in Asia including Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam and many areas in China. The photographs of these journeys form one of the most extensive records of any region taken in the 19^th century. 

We'd like to thank the Scotland-China Association for their support in this exhibiton.