This section is reserved for historical photographs. Most of them do and will relate to China before, say, the 1960s, although (as friends have suggested) I should probably venture into the era of political turmoil and ideological struggle (the Cultural Revolution, that is) with a photographic series or two (see "Yesterday" for example). Note that photography as an artistic medium was introduced into China already in the 1860s, which gives this archive a comfortable time bracket of ca. 100 years. At present the earliest images included here are Ernst Ohlmer's photographs of the Yuanmingyuan from the early 1870s.

For a much more comprehensive overview of the early development of photography in China see my other site at http://gatheringmountains.net/Photoweb/. This site also includes hundreds of scanned images which can be browsed and downloaded.

Please contact me if you are searching for a particular image or theme. My private archive far exceeds what is on display here. Original TIF files upon request.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY & Beijing, China