By Rui Hu, EDITOR

An Australian Photographer in China is held in Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art during 12 Sep. to 12 Oct., the opening ceremony was held in the afternoon on 12 Sep. This exhibition brings together pioneering Australians; adventurers, explorers, inquisitive souls all drawn to the remote areas of South Western China far from the safety of the ‘Treaty Ports’ where foreign business was conducted on the Eastern seaboard.

The opening ceremony was held on 12 Sep., 2018

Photographs on exhibition

The exhibition has a strong historical foundation based upon images captured by the pioneering Australian adventurer George Morrison as he trekked through Yunnan on his overland journey from Shanghai to Burma in 1894. 

An Australian photographer in China, photo. George Ernest Morrison

Bridge at Wanxian, Photo. R. Lockhart Jack, 10 Feb., 1900

We then examine the work of Sinologist and Historian, Charles Patrick Fitzgerald (1920s) and travelling fabric salesman, Harry Glathe (1930s).

The exhibition also surveys work created by contemporary Australian photographers & filmmakers including: Shelley Warner and Geoffrey Marginson, both junior diplomats with the first Australian Embassy in Beijing, who provide our audiences with a rare glimpse of provincial Yunnan during the 1970s. Leo Meier, Harold Weldon & Ken Duncan who retraced The Long March route in 1984, and more recent adventurers who undertook their own epic journeys.

George Ernest Morrison in the middle

Life Boat, Photo. R. Lockhart Jack, 20 Feb., 1900

Life in Chongqing, photo. Anthony Anderton

Together these Australian photographers contribute to a remarkable historical archive that visually documents a rapidly changing China throughout the 20th Century.

Photo on the exhibition

Passport in Qing Dynasty

Tree on the wall, photo. Dahongpao

An Australian Photographer in China is produced and presented by Cultural Partnerships Australia and Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art. Curated by Catherine Croll.