What were the famous photo studios in China from the end of the 19th century?

From the end of the 19th century onwards, there were some famous photo studios in all large and medium-sized cities in China. In Beijing, there were Fengtai and China, in Guangzhou there was Yanfang, in Tianjin there was Dingzhang, and in Shanghai there were Yaohua and Wang Kai, etc. These photo studios won either by quality or by service. These photo studio or quality to win, or to service famous, or to its involved in some important people or events and famous.

(A) Fengtai photo studio

Beijing's first photo studio - "Fengtai" photo studio, opened in 1892 (Guangxu 18 years), its founder was a Japanese school returned home Ren Jingfeng. Fengtai Photo Studio was large in scale, with more than ten employees, and had successively employed photographers such as Liu Jinglun and Xu Zihe. In the shooting, Fengtai made many attempts to shoot theater photos, group photos and famous for the capital.

June 9, 1929, the Beijing newspaper "Pictorial Weekly" published Fengtai photo studio photographed opera actors in civilian clothes. The photo shows Tian Jiyun, Zhu Suyun and Lu Sanbao in their middle age at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and was originally titled:

Photographed at Fengtai Photo Studio in Liulichang in the 20th year of Guangxu.

The photo was taken in 1894, and is the earliest photo taken by Fengtai Photo Studio that can be seen today.

Besides taking opera photos, Fengtai Photo Studio also tried to take opera movies. To this end, Ren Jingfeng to the German businessman Qi Luofu Yanghang, purchased a French-made wooden casing hand-cranked camera, fourteen rolls of film, began preparations for the shooting of the film. 1905 in the fall, in the Fengtai Photo Studio's open-air courtyard, the film "Dingjunshan" started shooting. This is an opera documentary, starring the famous Peking Opera performer Tan Xinpei, with Liu Jinglun, a technician from Fengtai Photo Studio, as the cameraman. The movie*** was shot over three days, including scenes such as "dancing with swords", "fighting" and "asking for help".

"Dingjunshan" was the first movie made in China. After that, Fengtai Photo Studio shot seven more movies one after another until a fire broke Fengtai's vitality and stopped the shooting activities.

(2) Yanfang Photo Studio

Guangzhou Yanfang Photo Studio, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, operating silver Huang Ruoyun and other capital opened.

Yanfang Photo Studio mainly took portraits and family photos, but also large group photos. Because of the good quality of photography, Yanfang enjoys a good reputation in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas compatriots. Some customers had their photos taken at Yanfang when they were children, and then returned to Yanfang many years later to have their "family photos" taken as a souvenir.

It is worth mentioning that Yanfang has also taken group photos for several celebrities. Many of the group photos of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities in Guangzhou were taken by Yan Fang. For example, in 1923, Mr. Sun Yat-sen was photographed on the Yongfeng Ship with Ms. Song Qingling and others. Yanfang Photo Studio also enlarged a large bust portrait of Dr. Sun to 36 inches and meticulously retouched it, and hung it in the lobby for people to admire.

In 1927, when Mr. Lu Xun was teaching at Sun Yat-sen University, he also went to Yanfang Photo Studio to take photos. Mr. Lu Xun recorded this event in his diary:

September 11, clear. In the afternoon Chiang Ching-san came and went with him to Yanfang Photo Studio ......

This precious photo is now displayed in the Lu Xun Museum in Guangzhou.

(C) Dingzhang photo studio

Tianjin Dingzhang photo studio, formerly known as Guangdong Huang Guohua founded the "Hengchang" photo studio.

Later, by the Tianjin salt merchants Wang Kui Zhang capital, photographer Prince Ming took over the "Heng Chang", and in 1904 changed its name to "Ding Chang". With its expanded scale and new sets, Dingchang Photo Studio became the top photo studio in Tianjin, specializing in portraits of upper-class celebrities.

In 1912, Prince Ming passed away, and Dingchang was taken over by the store's apprentices, Wang Runquan and Li Yaoting, who renamed it Dingzhang. Since then, Dingzhang photo studio once again expanded, business is booming.

Many years of practical experience, so that the Dingzhang photo studio formed a complete set of working procedures. At that time, other large photo studio is the use of assembly operations, photography, film washing, sun printing, enlargement of each person responsible for, do not contact each other, so the quality of the photo is not easy to guarantee. Dingzhang photo studio's practice for many years is: the implementation of specialized cooperation, the shooting and post-processing as a whole, each link to cooperate with each other. This method not only ensures that the quality of photos is excellent, but also reflects a certain artistic style, which is highly praised by people from all walks of life.

Dingzhang Photo Studio has taken photos for many celebrities. In early 1920, Zhou Enlai and other student leaders were detained by the authorities for organizing the student patriotic movement, and when he was released from prison in July, he was welcomed by the Tianjin academic community. Upon hearing the news, Dingzhang Photo Studio immediately sent a photographer to the scene to take a group photo of the released delegates free of charge to show their support. The last picture of Dr. Sun Yat-sen during his lifetime was also taken by Dingzhang Photo Studio on the afternoon of December 4, 1924, in Caojia Garden, Tianjin.

(4) Yew Wah Photo Studio

Shanghai developed into a prosperous industrial and commercial city in a short span of 50 years from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and the photo industry also flourished, topping the list of all the southern provinces. There were four largest photo studios in the photo industry in Shanghai, known as the "Four Heavenly Kings". Among them, the most famous is "Yaohua" photo studio.

Yew Wah Photo Studio was founded by photographer Shi Dezhi, and was quite famous in Shanghai. After the year of Gengzi, Yew Wah Photo Studio was divided into East and West. The East Hall was located in the "Throwing Ground", where Shi Dezhi took pictures. Because there were many admirers, Shi Dezhi had to declare that he would only take pictures for three hours every morning. Shi Dezhi know chemistry, photography with light is very careful, he advocated that there are shades of shadow changes, in order to highlight the three-dimensional form of the subject. This idea broke through the tradition of Chinese photographers who used only flat lighting. Shi Dezhi was good at enlarging huge photographs to make the portraits more vivid. In addition, he also took a lot of colorized photos of ladies, which were very popular with customers.

The West Wing was located in the "Happy Valley" and was decorated with a gorgeous interior, with Shi Dezhi's daughter as the photographer. At that time, there was no female photographer in China, but Yew Wah was the first to set such a precedent, and proclaimed:

Taking pictures of women with a woman is a good way to distinguish between men and women.

Shi Dezhi's daughter was also proficient in photography, and "her skills were as good as her father's". Father and daughter **** with the operation of the photo studio, at the time of the rumor.

(E) Wang Kai photo studio

Wang Kai photo studio, is also a famous photo studio in Shanghai. Its owner's name was Wang Chikai, so it was named "Wang Kai".

In 1927, when the Far East Games were held in Shanghai, the organizers of the Games invited bids for the sports photography of the Games.

Wang Kai Photo Studio won the right to photograph the Far East Games by bidding at a high price. "Wang Kai" selected a highly skilled photographer, formed four teams to shoot the games. These photographers, active in all corners of the games, they use the new small camera, captured many of the game when the exciting shots. "Wang Kai developed these photos overnight and sold them to newspapers at a low price on the condition that the words "Shanghai Wang Kai Photo" were printed underneath the published photos.

Because of the great influence of the Far East Games, all the newspapers reported on the event, and the sports photos taken by the Wang Kai Photo Studio were naturally favored by the newspapers.

From August 27th to September 7th, 1927, the Shanghai "Declaration" published 49 sports photos, of which 37 were taken by the Wang Kai Photo Studio. "Wang Kai" became famous throughout the country.

Wang Kai Photo Studio was famous for its high quality, low price and good service. At that time, photographers all over the country, the monthly salary is generally 20 to 60 yuan, but Wang Kai to 100 silver dollars to hire a master teacher, in order to improve the level of shooting. Photographic equipment also use all brand-name products, low-quality equipment resolutely do not use. In order to avoid the impact of vibration shooting, Wang Kai photo studio also in the staircase and photography room are paved with rubber mats. In terms of lighting, Wang Kai also improved, the photos are clear, bright and rich in spirit.

Wang Kai photo studio is very strict on the quality of photos, Wang Chikai often personally check the photos, if found to have broken eyebrows, eyes of different sizes, glasses, reflections, God shape is not good, the tone is not correct and so on, will require the photographer to reshoot, reprint, repair, until the customer is satisfied.

(F) China Photo Studio

China Photo Company was founded in the 1920s and moved from Shanghai to Beijing in 1956 and renamed China Photo Studio.

The famous photographer Yao Jingcai, 1938 ~ 1956 in Shanghai, China Photo Company as a photographer. After moving to Beijing, he served as deputy manager and manager of China Photo Studio, and technical adviser to the photo industry of Northern Service (Group) Company.

Yao Jingcai studied hard on photography technology, striving for perfection, and took photos for Premier Zhou Enlai, President Liu Shaoqi, Chairman Zhu De and other leaders of the Party and the country, leaving behind photos that the people will always remember. He has also edited "Portrait Photography", "how to take good lighting portraits" and other professional books, and tirelessly and enthusiastically to colleagues and photography enthusiasts across the country to teach technology, in the field of portrait photography has produced a wide range of impact.

Three, the prevalence of split and masquerade photos

In order to meet the needs of the people, so that the photos are more dramatic, China's early photo studio in the continuous updating of the studio layout at the same time, the introduction of the "split" and "masquerade photos". These two styles of photography, once popular in the country.

"Masquerade photo", is the photographer in accordance with certain intentions or concepts, let the subject wear a specific costume, play a variety of identity "role", and then photographed. There are many kinds of roles to play, including characters in mythological stories, typical images of various social classes, and ideal images of characters.

Mr. Lu Xun once gave a description of "split photos".

The more common is to take two pictures of oneself, with different dresses and attitudes. Then they are combined into one. The two themselves as guests and masters, or as masters and servants. The name is "two I figure". But if one self is sitting proudly, and the other self is kneeling in a lowly and pitiful manner towards the seated self, then the name and color will be two different things: "the picture of the seeking self".

Split photo production, in addition to Mr. Lu Xun said the use of two negatives synthesis method, some photo studio also used two or more masking exposure method. This shows that photographers at that time had skillful photography techniques and darkroom production level.

Masquerade photographs and split photographs have had a great impact on our photographic industry. Their shadows can still be seen in today's studios.