"Staged Photography and Histories of Treaty Ports: Hong Kong and Coastal Communities Framed, 1860-1920."

by Prof Sarah E. FRASER  

Abstract:

One of the challenges of researching East Asia is the legacy of colonial photography and extracting historical data. This talk will explore different types of staged photography and stereotypes, ethnographic references and construction, and how to use early photography as a reference tool for research. How do we assess personal, individual, and geographic data presented in colonial photographs? Further, with the advent of war in the twentieth century in East Asia, aerial photography offers documentary material on Chinese capitals, ports, and cities; in what ways do these materials offering seemingly objective views with curated photos from the early history of photography of China? Later how did Chinese photographers subvert and reinvent photographic regimes?

Biography:

PROF. DR. SARAH E. FRASER is Director, Institute of East Asian Art History, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Her research includes Buddhist and photographic topics focused on 20^th c. archaeology, cognition, and transcultural sites of encounter. Book publications include: Performing the Visual: The Practice of Buddhist Wall Painting in China and Central Asia, 618-980 (2004); Xu Bing: After the Book from the Sky (2020); and Cross Media Women: East Asian Photography, Prints, and Porcelain in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2022); and Ink and Oil: Chinese Artists Trained in Europe, 1920-1960 (forthcoming Brill, 2026).