1316
undertaken by German A. B. Meyer (1840–1911) on
his own and by use of other photographers work. His
Album von Philippinen-Typen of 1885 included Luzon
and Mindanao people in a mixture of studio set ups and
natural settings.
The turbulent revolutionary years at the close of the
century also inspired the growth of reportage. Spaniard
Manuel Arias y Rodriguez (1850–1924) took up photog-
raphy in 1892 and ran the Agencia Editorial bookshop
at Escolta with his brother Vincente. The fi rm sold a
wide range of photographs of urban and landscape
views of the regions but was quietly subversive selling
under the counter banned books by nationalist Dr Jose
Rizal whose execution in 1896 Manuel photographed.
Afterwards Arias took on the role of war correspondent
of the Philippine Revolution against Spain 1896–1897
and supplied images to the Barcelona journal La Ilus-
tración Artística from 1897–1900. Arias ended up as
Spanish ambassador to Tokyo and died there in 1924.
Documenting war proved perilous for Francisco Chofré
y Olea and Augusto Norris y Olea who were killed in
1896 while photographing during the Philippine Revolu-
tion. Their portraits and their photographs were included
in two albums on the war Tristes Recuerdos1896 and
1897 published posthumously by their fi rm Chofre and
Co. in Manila.
The Spanish-American war resulted in American
rule in the Philippines from 1898 prompted a fl ood of
illustrated publications including, F. Tennyson Neely’s
Fighting in the Philippines: authentic original photo-
graphs 1899, many stereograph series and distinctive
solder-portraits wearing their scout-style outfi ts and
striking poses reminiscent of the Old West. James
Ricalton (1844–1929) an American teacher who pho-
tographed for Underwood and Underwood recorded
grisly images of the 1899 casualties (the greater death
toll of locals from starvation and disease however, going
largely unrecorded).
Gael Newton
See also: Woodbury, Walter Bentley; Itier, Jules;
Castro Ordóñez, Rafael; Lambert & Co., G.R.; and
South-East Asia: Thailand, Burma and Indochina
(Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos).
Further Reading
Falconer, John, Vision of the past: a history of early photography in
Singapore and Malaya: the photographs of G.R. Lambert & Co.,
1880–1910, Singapore: Times Editions (1987), reprint 1995.
Groenveld, Anneke, Falconer, John, and Wachlin, Steven, Van
Bombay tot Shanghai/ From Bombay to Shanghai, Amster-
dam: Fragment Uitgeverij, 1994.
Liu, Gretchen, Singapore—A Pictorial History 1819–2000, Sin-
gapore: Archipelago Press, imprint of Editions Didier Millet,
Ministry of Information and the Arts, National Heritage Board,
2005 reprint of the 1999 original.
Moore, Wendy Khadijah, Malaysia: A Pictorial History, 1400–
2004 , Singapore: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004.
Perez, Christian, Catalogue of Philippine Stereoviews, Quezon
City: Christian Perez, We-Print, 2002.
Silva, John, Colonial Philippines: Photographs, 1868–1910,
Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California,
Berkeley, May 9–July 11, 1987 (exhibition catalogue).
Silva, John L., ‘Remembering a Glorious Past: The GBR
(Geronimo Berenguer de los Reyes, Jr.) Museum, Philippines,
Photographic Collection,’ Arts of Asia, Jan–Feb. 1998.
Tristes Recuerdos Manila (Manila: Chofre and Co, 1896–97):
reprint, Manila: National Historical Institute, 2004.
Feito, Mario López, webpage of 14 June 2006, ‘Los primeros
y últimos de Filipinas’ Fotógrafo de Baler: Manuel Arias
Rodríguez: una aproximación al fotógrafo del 98 español
en Filipinas’ http://baleria.com/?page_id=60 accessed 19
August 2006.SOUTH-EAST ASIA: THAILAND,
BURMA, AND INDOCHINA (CAMBODIA,
VIETNAM, LAOS)
In his memoirs French trade negotiator Jules Itier
(1802–1877) describes making two daguerreotypes at
the French military fort at Tourane (Da Nang), South
Vietnam, in 1845 while on a trade mission to China.
Activity by other daguerreotypists in Burma or Indo-
china is as yet unknown. The response to photography
in Thailand (Siam) was however, precocious due to the
enthusiasm for the medium in the Royal Court.
In Bangkok in July 1845 French Bishop Jean-Baptiste
Pallegoix (1841–1862) received an apparatus he had or-
dered from France and he and his confreres became ad-
ept enough to take Royal portraits and train others. With
no tradition of Royal portraiture in the late 1840s and
1850s King Mongkut (Rama IV) had many photographs
of himself and court made to mirror European portrait
photographs received as gifts and which he returned in-
kind. A practise continued even more assiduously by his
son Rama V, King Chulalongkorn. Locals and members
of the court also acquired photography skills (details are
in various Thai histories as yet not available in English).
Luang Wisut Yothamat (Mot Amatyakun) the Director
of the Siam Mint, made portraits of the Royal couple
using a daguerreotype camera sent by Queen Victoria
to the King in 1856.
Access to the Thai Royals was granted to foreign pho-
tographers including Swiss Pierre Rossier (on assignment
in Asia for Negretti and Zambra of London) who was in
Bangkok in 1861 and made ethnographic studies and a
Royal portrait for Firmin Bocourt a French zoologist and
illustrator in Thailand on a naturalist expedition.
Bishop Pallegoix or French priests probably trained
the Thai-Christian Khun Sunthonsathitlak (1830–1891)
who began photography in the late 1850s, worked for
the technologically-minded dual monarch Phra Pinklao,
before opening his own studio in 1863 under the name