Lai Afong

Only known self-portrait and autograph of Lai Afong. c.1870.

Lai Afong (Chinese: 赖阿芳 aka. Lai Ah Fong, Huafang, Fang Lai, Lihua Fang, Li Fang, A'Fong Lai, 赖華芳, 黎華芳, 芳華) (c.1839 - 1890) was a Chinese photographer who established Afong Studio, one of the early photographic studios in Hong Kong. He is considered to be the most significant Chinese photographer of the nineteenth century.^[1]

Work

His studio was active from 1859 to around the 1940s. The business was probably taken over by his son in the 1890s.^[2] Subject matters ranged from portraits and social life pictures to cityscapes and landscapes. Lai's work and person were praised by John Thomson, a Scottish photographer working in China at the time, in Thomson's book The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China.^[3]

Gallery

Selected photographs by Lai Afong
Golden Lily Foot  Opium smokers  Temple of the Six Banyan Trees  Junks in Canton  Panorama of Gulangyu Island and Amoy  Canton commercial street view  Zhan Shichai

See also

• Photography in China

References

1. Hannavy, John (2013). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Routledge. p. 815. ISBN 9781135873264. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
2. "Afong" on Wattis Fine Art website
3. Thompson, John (1875). The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China. Harper & brothers. pp. 188–189. Retrieved 11 November 2015.

Further reading

• Bennett, Terry (2009). History of Photography in China 1842-1860. Bernard Quaritch. ISBN 978-0-9563012-0-8.
• Bennett, Terry (2013). History of photography in China : Chinese photographers, 1844-1879. London: Quaritch. ISBN 9780956301246.
• Chen, Shi (2009). Early Chinese Photographers from 1840 to 1870: Innovation and Adaptation in the Development of Chinese Photography (PDF) (Master of Arts thesis). University of Florida. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
• Cody, Jeffery W.; Terpak, Frances, eds. (2011). Brush & Shutter : early photography in China. Los Angeles, California: Getty Research Institute. ISBN 978-1-60606-054-4.