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Bosshard in China : Documenting Social Change in the 1930s

Author :  Florian Knothe & Peter Pfrunder

Product Details

Country
Hong Kong
Publisher
University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU, Hong Kong
ISBN 9789881902535
Format PaperBack
Language English
Year of Publication 2018
Bib. Info 1v.
Product Weight 876 gms.
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Product Description

Bosshard in China documents China’s landscape and its people during a time when China was undergoing significant sociopolitical upheaval. During this same era, photojournalism was developing into a serious mass medium of information, and Bosshard’s work in the 1930s was one of the primary means by which the Far East came to life across living rooms in Europe and America. As Bosshard’s journeys through China are well documented, his imagery offers valuable contextual information. He provides views into a society—and now past—that benefits from the objective view of the camera lens. Bosshard’s work is of historical significance, as most Western photographers only went to China for individual assignments, but did not live there for extended periods. Many of the Chinese photographers were politically engaged or had been commissioned, which resulted in a more selective subject matter and consistent narrative. Bosshard’s documentary photography and film are neither colonialist nor otherwise politically motivated. Though he lived alongside the Chinese people during the Japanese invasion, he did not take sides but rather let his images—both still and moving—capture the scenes unfolding around him. This phenomenon is remarkable, as traditional reports of political and military campaigns, and especially images of warfare, often aimed to communicate either nationalist or anti-nationalist sentiments. Bosshard documented urban centres and rural regions, peaceful everyday as well as wartime activities, and throughout all of these moments he strived to remain a neutral observer. His oeuvre presents a more holistic view of a country that was perceived internationally as highly important but altogether remained little known. As photography and film began to dominate modern visual culture, and provided information and an entree to far-away countries and cultures, the work done by Bosshard served, and continues to serve, as a cultural mediator that provides access to an historical period irreversibly marked by complex layers of social change.

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