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photographed the Chinese and aborigines of Formosa.
The Englishman, Thomas Child (1841–1898), was a gas
engineer attached to the Chinese Maritime Customs in
Peking. In his spare time he compiled a series of some
200 views of the capital, together with genre studies of
local Chinese. His albums were very popular and a num-
ber have found their way into institutional holdings.
In closing, it is worth making the point that, in reality,
relatively little is yet known about the history of Chinese
photography, and the work of the key Western and Chi-
nese photographers has yet to be properly researched
and chronicled. In twenty years from now, however,
we will surely still be celebrating the work of Louis
Legrand, Pierre Rossier, Felix Beato, Milton Miller,
John Thomson, William Saunders, Lai Afong, Tung
Hing and Cheung Mee. It will be interesting, however,
to see who else is added to this list.
Terry Bennett
See Also: Itier, Jules; Brown Jr, Eliphalet; Rossier,
Pierre; Negretti & Zambra; Freeman, Orrin; Jocelyn,
William Nassau; Beato, Felice; Weed, Charles
Leander; Anthony, Edward, Henry and Tiebout;
Thomson, John; Lai Afong; Saunders, William;
Burger, Wilhelm A.; and Child, Thomas.
Further Reading
Beers, Burton F., China in Old Photographs, 1860–1910, New
York: Charles Scribener’s & Sons, 1978.
Chen Sen, Hu Zhichuan, and Ma Yunceng et al., (eds.), Zhongguo
sheying shi 1840–1937 (History of Photography in China).
Beijing: Zhongguo shying chubanshe, 1987.
Goodrich, L. and Cameron, Nigel, The Face of China as Seen by
Photographers and Travelers, 1860–1912, Millerton, N.Y.:
Aperture, 1978.
Harris, David, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato’s Photographs
of China, Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
1999.
Itier, Andre, Journal d’un voyage en Chine, 1843, 1844, 1845,
1846 , Paris: Dauvin & Fontaine, 1848.
Lane-Poole, S. and Dickins, F. V., The Life of Sir Harry Parkes,
London: Macmillan & Co., 1894.
Ovenden, Richard, John Thomson (1837–1921) Photographer,
Edinburgh: The Stationary Offi ce Ltd., 1997.
Rosenberg, Gert, Wilhelm Burger: Ein Welt-und Forschungs-
reisender mit der Kamera, 1844–1920, Wien and Munchen:
Christian Brandstatter, 1984.
Thiriez, Regine, Barbarian Lens, The Netherlands: Gordon &
Breach Publishers, 1998.
Thomson, John, Foochow and the River Min, London: Autotype
Fine Art Company, 1873.
Thomson, John, Illustrations of China and its people, London:
Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1873–74.
Wood, John, The Scenic Daguerreotype, Iowa: University of
Iowa Press, 1995.
Worswick, Clark, Imperial China: Photographs 1850–1912, New
York: Pennwick Publishing, 1978.
Wu Qun, Zhongguo shying licheng (The Historical Develop-
ment of Photography in China), Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe,
1986.
Wue, Roberta, Waley-Cohen, Joanna; Lai, Edwin K, Picturing
Hong Kong Photography 1855–1910, New York: Asia Society
Galleries, 1997.CHIT, FRANCIS [KHUN
SUNTHONSATHITLAK] (1830–1891)
Thai photographer
Francis Chit, a Thai-Christian born in Bangkok in 1830,
learnt the daguerreotype process c.1847, from French
Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix (1841–1862) changing
to the collodion wet plate a decade later. In 1863 he
opened his fi rst studio on a houseboat at Kradee Cheen
village in front of the old Portuguese Santa Cruz church,
then the heart of international affairs in Bangkok. He
was appointed court photographer fi rstly to King Rama
IV, and promoted Khoon Soondr Sadis Lacks (offi cer for
fi ne likeness image) by King Rama V in 1866.
Images based on Chit’s early works appeared—un-
credited—in the 1883 edition of naturalist Henri
Mouhout’s classic “Voyage dans les royaumes de Siam,
de Cambodge, de Laos et autres parties centrales de
l’Indo-Chine 1858–1860.” (Tour du Monde, v. 111, nos.
196–204, Paris, 1863). His works were widely repro-
duced, being invariably claimed by—or misattributed
to—other photographers including; Wilhelm Burger,
John Thomson and W. K. Loftus. Francis Chit died of
cholera in 1891.
Chit’s work constitutes the major photographic
record of Thailand in the second half of the 19th cen-
tury, and includes portraits of royalty and royal events,
views throughout Thailand, including his great 6-part
panorama of Bangkok of 1863/4, and astronomical
photographs of the solar eclipse in 1868. His 1877
catalogue lists over 9,000 images. There are over 2000
glass plate and large format negatives preserved in the
National Archives of Thailand.
Phiphat PhongraphiphonCHOISELAT, MARIE-CHARLES-
ISIDORE (1815–1858) AND RATEL,
FREDERIC PATRICE CLEMENT
STANISLAS (1824–1904)
French daguerreotypists
Choiselat and Ratel were born in Paris ten years apart:
the fi rst, Charles Marie Isidore Choiselat, on February
13, 1815, to a family of bronze manufacturers, who
specialized in religious articles (the Choiselat house);
the second, Frederic Patrice Clement Stanislas Ratel,
was born on March 20, 1824.
Little is known of their backgrounds. Their fi rst
writings and communications reveal, from 1840, solid
scientifi c knowledge. Stanislas Ratel for his part was a