John Thomson (photographer)
John Thomson ( born June 14, 1837 in Edinburgh, † September 30, 1921 in London) was a Scottish pioneer of photography.
Life
The son of the tobacco worker William Thomson completed until 1858 an optometrist teaching. He had learned the basics of photography and attended evening classes at the Watt Institution and School of Arts. In 1861 he became a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. In 1862 he moved to his brother William to Singapore, where he built a studio where he photographed European merchants.
In 1865 he made his first major photo trip to Bangkok, where he potraitierte King Mongkut and to Cambodia, where he was first photographed the ruins of Angkor. The following year he published the images in England, gave lectures and was a member of the Royal Geographical Society.
In 1867 he moved his studio to Hong Kong and traveled the next five years by China: From Canton over the southern treaty ports to Beijing and continue on Formosa and the east coast of 2000 km on the Yangtze River in the interior. He photographed landscapes, interiors, working people and tangerine.
In 1869 he was commissioned to photograph the royal visit. His photos have been published in Rev. William R. Beach's book Visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to Hong Kong in 1869. 1872, he returned to England and published several illustrated books.
1877 appeared in several deliveries his social documentary image sequence of London street life, especially the simple, portrayed life in poverty population. The study included a total of 36 photographs, which were accompanied by a longer comment or text he had written together with the socialist journalist Adolphe Smith (actually Adolphe Smith Headingley ).
In the fall of 1878 he toured the newly acquired colony of Cyprus, which led to his last two volumes with 59 Woodburytypien.
He worked mainly with collodion wet plates. After his death, a summit of Kilimanjaro, Point Thomson was named ( 4995 m) after him.
Works
- The Antiquities of Cambodia: A Series of Photographs Taken on the Spot; 1867
- Foochow and the River Min; 1873
- Illustrations of China and Its People; 1873/74
- The Straits of Malacca, Indo - China and China: Or, Ten Years ' Travel, Adventures, and Residence Abroad; 1875
- John Thomson, Adolphe Smith: Street Life in London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London 1877; from February appeared in twelve monthly installments. First Full German edition after the submission of an original from the collection Lebeck. Street life in London, The bibliophiles paperbacks, Haren mountain, Dortmund 1981, ISBN 3-88379-217-9 ( online at Google Books a Full revision, the under the title of Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs published in 1994 by Dover in London, ISBN 978-0486281216. )
- Through Cyprus with the Camera in the Autumn of 1878; 1879