The Forbidden City in view - The photographic activity of foreign photographers of the Late Qing Dynasty in China

Abstract

The article examines the photographic activity of foreign photographers during the late Qing Dynasty in China and analyzes their work in the context of historical material. The author explores the metaphor of the camera as it entered China and how the photographic activity of foreign photographers represented the colonial conquest of the Forbidden City.Since the Second Opium War in 1860, photography has served as a documentary tool, following the sounds of colonial invaders' guns as they sought to capture and control the Chinese capital. Forty years later, in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, the camera of a foreign photographer literally penetrated the Forbidden City, the former center of imperial power, revealing to the world the intricacies of the mysterious device and the turmoil of its capture by the allies.The use of photography in this context took on a dual aesthetic and political character, documenting the view of the Forbidden City while discrediting the attributes of imperial power. The author concludes that, in addition to its ability to document foreign landscapes, photography often acquired political significance during invasion. Thus, the author argues that photography's development in China during the late Qing period is inseparable from colonial and invasion activities and that photography constructed power relations while also showing the world a mysterious and declining China. The photography of the Forbidden City gives full expression to the conquest of the center of Chinese power.