John Thomson's China – Lesson 03
Point of View: Designing and Compiling a Photo Collection
Introduction
As the previous lessons have considered, photographers inject point-of-view and bias into their photos as they make creative decisions. Juxtaposing images within or across a pair of photos can create a powerful message or point-of-view. Other individuals who work with photographs such as historians, journalists, etc., may also convey point-of-view and consciously or unconsciously construct a message for the viewer in the way they choose to compile photos. Published photo albums or collections are rarely random. As photos are grouped, the photographer and/or the publisher can, and often do, create themes or messages they want to convey.
According to photographer Thomson’s own narrative, his goal in his China albums was to create a “true picture” of China for viewers back in the West. He writes,
My design in the accompanying work is to present a series of pictures of China and its people, such as shall convey an accurate impression of the country I traversed as well was of the arts, usages, and manners which prevail in different provinces of the Empire. With this intention I made the camera the constant companion of my wanderings, and to it I am indebted for the faithful reproduction of the scenes I visited, and of the types of race with which I came into contact…. the faithfulness of such pictures affords the nearest approach that can be made towards placing the reader actually before the scene which is represented.
Can there be a single true picture of a country or any topic? Can photography be objective, as Thompson implies? To what extent do Thompson’s choices of subjects and photo album design affect that picture? This is the subject students explore in this lesson.
John Thomson included over 80 scenic views of China in his four-volume collection. As art historian Alan Hockley notes in the Essay, 27 of the 80-plus photos focused on the presence of foreigners in China. Images of foreign concessions in the treaty ports constitute the largest number of these images. Given that Westerners were a small presence in a very large country in the 1860s and 1870s, what does the focus on Western influence in Thomson’s photographs say? Is Thomson’s focus on Western presence in China meaningful? Is it part of a message or point-of-view of the photographer? What do the photos say about Thompson’s impression of China and what might this subset of photos reflect about British attitudes towards China?
Teachers should review Hockley’s analysis in John Thomson’s China I, chapter two, “Treaty-Port Imagery and its Implications.” In it, Hockley suggests Thomson’s treaty-port photographs showcase the “civilizing influence of the West,” a common theme in mid- and late-19th-century Europe and the United States. The concept that a more highly developed Western civilization would be a positive influence on backward countries and cultures was fundamental to the empire-building rationale of the time. According to Hockley, through his photographs Thomson constructs “a visual analogy for the march of civilization engendered by the presence of Westerners in China” and consciously “links the presence of foreigners to the modernization of China.”
Objectives
At the conclusion of this activity, students will be better able to:
Develop visual literacy skills.
Defend a thesis with visual data.
Identify patterns, themes, and narratives produced by collections of visual texts such as photographs.
Consider how point-of-view and narrative are constructed in the way photos are arranged in a collection.
Time Required
One to two class periods.
Materials and preparation
Lesson 03 Mini-database
Procedure
1. Ask students to think what it might mean to label a country “civilized.” Ask them to think about China’s long history. What evidence was there that China had a well-developed civilization for many centuries? Ask students to consider a variety of factors—for example, philosophy and religion; invention; political organization; political and economic relations with its neighbors, and so on.
Next, introduce students to the position, held by many among the Western nations that built foreign concessions in the Chinese treaty ports, that the West brought a “civilizing influence” to China in the late 1800s. What did it mean to be civilized in 19th-century England or the United States? In the 1870s, what would have been the characteristics of a civilized society or country from a Western (European or American) perspective?
Ask students to consider whether there could be more than one definition of a “civilized” society or country, now or in the past. To what extent is the definition of “civilized” subject to bias and point-of-view?
2. Share important background from the introduction (above). Inform students that John Thomson included over 80 scenic views of China in his four-volume collection. As Hockley notes in the Essay, 27 of the 80-plus photos focused on the presence of foreigners in China, and images of the treaty ports constitute the largest number of these images. Given that Westerners were a small presence in a very large country in the 1860s and 1870s, do students think that the number of Thomson’s photographs depicting foreign influence says something about his perspective and message? Does it say anything about Thomson’s or Western attitudes towards China?
2. Present students with the following hypothesis:
Through his four-volume set of photographs, Illustrations of China and Its People, John Thomson presented the point-of-view that the West had a civilizing influence on China, a backward country.
Have students form their own working groups of two or three. Once groups have formed, have them count off as either 1 or 2. Explain that, through this assignment, students will complete an exercise in which they construct a point-of-view, or bias, based on how they select and compile photographs to create an album. Provide groups with the following instructions.
#1 groups: You support the hypothesis. Your position is that Scottish photographer John Thomson, by choosing to include a large number of photos depicting Western influence, presented the message that the West brought a civilizing influence to China, a relatively simple, backward country.
#2 groups: You challenge the hypothesis. Your position is that John Thompson respected and was impressed by the high degree of civilization and culture in China, and this is reflected in his photographs.
3. Give each group the Lesson Three Mini-database. Explain that the photos are culled from Illustrations of China and Its People and that not all will be useful in arguing the position the group has been assigned. Each group should select up to 10 photos that best support its position, keeping in mind that the larger the collection, the stronger the evidence of an intentional message or theme.
Allow time for students to select their images. Have students arrange their images in a photo-based argument. Their argument should have a thesis statement and five supporting statements, each of which should be based specifically on evidence in one or more of the photos they selected.
4. Once groups have completed their work, combine students into larger groups so that each new group includes a group 1 and a group 2. Allow 10 minutes for groups 1 and 2 to present their arguments to each other within their larger groups.
5. As a full class, ask groups to consider whether one side or the other had a stronger argument. In other words, was one side won over by the evidence of the other?
6. Culminate the lesson by asking how selecting and combining photos into a collection around a theme or point-of-view created a message for viewers. Was the compilation each group created the whole story? Would these messages have been evident in a different grouping? Allow groups 10 minutes to create a new grouping of photos with a new message. Ask for several groups to share their new collection and the point-of-view it conveys.
Finally, have students view any of the four photo albums created by John Thomson. Each album is reproduced in John Thomson's China III so that students can see them as they originally appeared. Have students study the albums and how Thomson compiled the photos. How does Thomson compile photos? Does the contrast of China and the West seem to be his main theme? Does he tell just one story or many with the way he arranges the photos?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2012 Visualizing Cultures