Accompanies an exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, 8 Feb.-1 May 2011.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction :Reading early photographs of China /Wu Hung --The history of the camera obscura and early photography in China /Edwin K. Lai --Through a foreign glass : the art and science of photography in Late Qing China /Jeffrey W. Cody,Inventing a "Chinese" portrait style in early photography : the case of Milton Miller /Wu Hung --Chinese as subject : photographic genres in the nineteenth century /Sarah E. Fraser --Beyond the frame : the camera in Republican Shanghai and wartime Chongqing /Wen-hsin Yeh --Plates --List of objects in the exhibition /Shi Chen.
Uncovered here is a captivating visual history of China during photography's first century. Chinese export painters learned and adapted the medium of photography by grafting the new technology onto traditional artistic conventions - employing both brush and shutter. The essays in this volume shed light on the birth of a medium.