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and their images of the confl ict were widely circulated
in photo albums. Díaz along with Carlos Renard and
Federico Leiva, also pioneered in the production of
cartes de visite in Chile.
Images of progress symbolized by railroads were
recorded by Emilio Chaigneau and E. Cachoirs. Their
work appeared in a book on the subject of the Santiago
to Valparaiso Railway (1863). Thomas William Oliver,
a Chilean of English descent who was trained as an
engineer, photographed industrial locations and proj-
ects, including the Santiago to Quillota railway whose
construction was supervised by famed railroad builder,
Henry Meiggs. Oliver later immigrated to the United
States and worked for the Kodak Company in the area
of research and development.
Several women are known to have worked in the
fi eld of photography in nineteenth-century Chile. The
most notable was Carolina B. de Poirie, who owned
studios in Valparaiso and San Felipe in the 1870s and
specialized in cartes de visite. Photo historian Eugenio
Pereira Salas mentions one Mercedes Quiroga as active
in La Serena at the turn of the twentieth century. Both
Salas and photohistorian Hernán Rodríguez Villegas
note that during the 1860s, Isabel Lagremoire, wife of
photographer Ernest Charton was at times behind the
camera. In the 1850s, artist Clara Filleul was responsible
for “illuminating” photographic images in the studio of
Victor Deroche.
Research on the history of photography in Chile is
well underway. The extant literature on the subject in-
cludes Eugenio Pereira Salas’s pioneer study of Chilean
photography (1942). More recently, architect Hernán
Rodríguez Villegas completed a substantial and years-
long investigation on photographers active in Chile
during the 19th century. His directory was published
by the Centro Nacional del Patrimonio Fotográfi co
in 2001. The Centro under the Directorship of Ilonka
Csillag, is dedicated to preserving the photographic
heritage of Chile. It is also collaborating with six other
South American countries to create a union catalogue
of photographic archives and collections.
Yolanda Retter
with contributions from Hernán Rodríguez
Villegas
Further reading
Alexander, Abel. “Robert Vance: Pioneer of the Daguerreotype
in Chile.” Daguerrean Annual, 1993, 11–30.
Gesualdo, Vicente Historia de la Fotografía en America. Buenos
Aires: Editorial Sui Generis, 1990.
Jara, Álvaro. Chile en 1860. William L. Oliver. Un Precursor de la
fotografía. Santiago de Chile: Edición Universitaria, 1973.
Salas, Eugenio Pereira “El Centenario de la Fotografía en Chile,
1840–1940.” Boletín de la Academia Chilena de la Historia.
No. 20, 1942, np.
Villegas, Hernán Rodríguez Fotógrafos en Chile Durante el
Siglo XIX. Santiago, Chile: Centro Nacional del Patrimonio
Fotográfi co, 2001.CHINA
The earliest recorded reference to photography in China
is contained in the Journal of Harry Parkes, quoted in
Lane-Poole and Dickins’s The Life of Sir Harry Parkes
(1894, Vol. 1, 31). In his entry for July 16th, 1842, the
fourteen-year-old Parkes writes: “Major Malcolm and
Dr. Woosnam took a sketch of the place to-day on their
daguerreotype. I cannot understand it at all: but on ex-
posing a highly polished steel plate to the sun by the aid
of some glass or other it takes the scene before you on
to the plate and by some solution it will stay on the plate
for years. It is no use me trying to describe it, it is quite
a mystery.” The photograph taken was of an unnamed
town on the banks of the Yang-tse Kiang River, up which
the British Expeditionary Force was making its way
in order to obtain a treaty at Nanking. [Parkes and the
amateur daguerreotypists were on board HMS Queen,
and Major Malcolm was private secretary to Sir Henry
Pottinger (HBM Plenipotentiary and Hong Kong’s fi rst
governor) and was subsequently tasked with taking the
signed Treaty to England]. Even if the daguerreotypes
were successful, no trace of them appears in the British
foreign offi ce archives.
By way of background, Britain had just defeated
China in the First Opium War (1839–42), and the
Treaty of Nanking forced the opening of the fi ve ports
of Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai for
both trade and residence. Hong Kong island was also
ceded to Britain, although it is worth remembering that
Portugal had been in de facto control of Macau since
the mid-sixteenth century.
The next earliest reference to photography appears
in Journal d’un voyage en Chine (1848) where the
author, Jules Itier (1802–77), described taking some
thirty-seven daguerreotypes in Macau and Canton in- These are now held by the Musee Francais de
la Photographie and one example is illustrated in John
Wood’s The Scenic Daguerreotype (1995).
The fi rst mention of a photo-studio in China that the
writer has been able to fi nd, is that of a Mr West, whose
Hong Kong establishment was advertised in the China
Mail on March 6th, 1845:
Mr. West begs leave to inform the inhabitants of Victoria
that he has opened a Photographic or Daguerreotype
Room in Peel Street, near Queen’s Road. His room will
be open from 10am until 4pm. Single miniatures $3. $2
charged for each additional head in a group.
Another early studio is that of Hugh MacKay’s, a
Scotsman who took over an existing, but so far un-