805
dio, of what appears to be a French priest together with
other Koreans—presumably escapees from the 1866
persecution. The writer also has in his collection several
cartes de visite of French origin, which show portraits
of unkempt-looking Koreans probably photographed on
board a ship. The 1866 French-Korean confl ict strongly
suggests itself.
In May, 1871 Admiral Rodgers led a fl eet of fi ve ships
to Kanghwa with the dual purpose of enquiring about
the attack on the General Sherman and of opening trade
relations. Felix Beato was the expedition’s photogra-
pher. When the American diplomacy failed, Beato was
able to photograph the confl ict of the 10th and 11th of
June—including the carnage inside the captured forts.
Beato had gone across to Shanghai by 28th June, and
on the 30th June, with the American fl eet still in Korea,
Beato advertised in the Shanghai News Letter the sale
of his photograph albums of the confl ict! Beato did not
believe in wasting time. Albums of the confl ict are ex-
ceptionally rare, but one example is held by the Library
of Congress, another is in the writer’s collection.
In September of the same year, John Thomson was
on a photographic tour of China and had reached Pe-
king. There he encountered a few Koreans who were
part of a mission to China and were on the point of
leaving. Thomson was just in time to secure one por-
trait of two of the offi cials which is reproduced in his
monumental 1873–1874 work, Illustrations of China
and its Peoples.
In 1874, the American photographer D.R. Clark was
in the Far East to photograph the Transit of Venus. He
subsequently published a stereoview series in 1875,
Asiatic and Tropical Views, and included were fi ve views
of Korean interest. Clark had photographed a Korean
emigrant community living in Vladivostok and the fi rst
view, Natives of Corea, which is now in the writer’s
collection, would appear to be the earliest-known pho-
tograph to include Korean women.
In 1876, a Korean embassy in Tokyo was photo-
graphed, examples of which are in the writer’s collec-
tion. A fi ne group of photographs of an 1880 mission
to Japan are held by the Russian Geographical Society,
St. Petersburg. A photograph of an 1883 mission to the
United States is in the Peabody Essex Museum.
At this time, photographic activity amongst Koreans
themselves started to emerge. The fi rst professional
Korean photographer was Kim Yong-Won who was a
member of both the 1876 and 1880 embassies to Japan.
He was helped by a Japanese photographer, Honda Shu-
nosuke, and Kim set up a studio in Korea in 1883. In
1884, both Ji Un-Young, who had studied photography
in Japan, and Hwang Chul opened studios. However,
no photographs appear to have survived, and there is
precious little documentary evidence concerning the
activities of these three pioneers.
All three had to contend with widespread ignorance
and suspicion of photography. Rumors persisted that pho-
tographic chemicals were the residue from cooked local
children! Hwang Chul’s studio suffered regular stoning.
The new technology was also associated with the unpopu-
lar Japanese, and the general hostility resulted in all three
studios being closed down and destroyed in 1884.
Not surprisingly, these early photographers had con-
fi ned themselves to portraiture, which they could practise
in relative safety. Kim Kyu-Jin, an artist who went to Ja-
pan to study photography around 1895, was appointed the
fi rst offi cial photographer at the Korean Court, but none
of his photographs have been positively identifi ed.
In the fi nal few years of the nineteenth century, pho-
tography was given a boost when the King issued an
ordinance banning the wearing of the traditional male
topknot. Many Koreans wished to preserve an image
of what they looked like before complying and photo
studios suddenly experienced unprecedented demand.
But Korean sources, so far as the writer understands,
have yet to positively identify any photograph, taken by
a Korean, prior to 1920.
By the late-1880s, however, a succession of amateur
Western photographers had photographed the country.
The talented amateur and American diplomat, George
Foulk (1856–1893) took a number of photographs,
examples of which survive in American institutions.
In 1883 the American, Percival Lowell, travelled to
Korea and in a book which he published in 1885, in-
cluded twenty-fi ve of his own photographs. The fi rst
professional Japanese photographers in Korea seem
to have been Honda Shunosuke, and a Kameya Teijiro
who died in Korea in 1885 following the setting up of
his studio at around this time. Nothing much is known
about either of them.
A large part of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895
was fought on Korean soil and photographs were taken
by, amongst others, the French artist and cartoonist
Georges Bigot (1860–1927), many of whose photo-
graphs can be seen at Kawasaki City Museum, Japan and
John Alfred Vaughan, an engineer on HMS Undaunted.
Examples of his work are in the writer’s collection.
Because Korean photography was so late in getting
started, virtually all surviving work is represented in
albumen or silver print. Photographic formats include
stereoviews, cabinet, cartes de visite, and lantern slides.
All nineteenth-century photography of Korea is rare,
and what there is exists mainly outside Korea.
Terry Bennett
See also: Beato, Felice; and Thomson, John.Further Reading
Bennett, Terry, Korea Caught In Time, Reading: Garnet Publish-
ing, 1997.