Publication

John Thomson (1837-1921): Photographer
By Richard Ovenden
Foreword by David Puttnam

John Thomson was one of the most important and influential photographers of the nineteenth century, with wide-ranging interests which spanned everything from architecture, archaeology and landscape to formal portraiture and street and salon photography. Born in Edinburgh, he travelled extensively around the Far East and was the first photographer systematically to document Imperial China in all its aspects. He also pioneered the use of photography in book-illustration, and went on to establish the genre of photojournalism with a hard-hitting series of social documentary photographs of the street-people of London.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, this stunning book uncovers the life and work of one of photography's forgotten innovators.

Hardback 289x210mm 128pp Illustrated. 1997

ISBN 0 11 495883 5