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Lai Fong (c.1839-1890): Photographer of China
Herbert Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Lai Fong Exhibition Featured in “People’s Daily,” China’s Largest Newspaper
The Lowentheil Collection’s current exhibition at Cornell University, Lai Fong (1839-1890): Photographer of China, was covered by People’s Daily, China’s largest newspaper network.
“As one of the world’s most important private collections of original historical photographs of China, Loewentheil has collected 21,000 early photographs of China from collectors, art galleries, dealers, auction houses and other channels for more than 30 years. The private collection includes more than 500 works by Lai Fong. Most of the 50 original photographs in this special exhibition were selected from the 500 photographs in the Loewentheil collection, and were created from 1870 to 1890.”
Loewentheil China Collection featured on “CNN”
CNN’s Oscar Holland interviewed Stephan Loewentheil as part of their coverage of Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century from the Loewentheil Collection.
“Photography is the greatest preserver of history. … The earliest photography preserves culture in China, and elsewhere, as it had been for many hundreds of years because it was simultaneous with the technological revolutions that were to change everything.” – Stephan Loewentheil
Beijing exhibition of China Photography featured by “Xinhua News Agency”
Xinhua News Agency, China’s largest media organization, featured the Loewentheil Collection’s exhibition Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century from the Loewentheil Collection in an article published January 19, 2019. Stephan Loewentheil, interviewed via email, stated that he was “happy but not at all surprised by the large number of visitors. The response to the exhibition has shown that the public is eager for exposure to the visual and artistic record preserved by Chinese photography.”
Stephan Loewentheil Interviewed on “China Global Television Network”
Stephan Loewentheil discusses the past, present, and future of photography in China and the exhibition Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th century from the Loewentheil Collection on “The Point with Liu Xin,” a news program on the China Global Television Network.
“The photographs all belong to the Loewentheil Collection, which is the largest, rarest, and said to be the most valuable of its kind in the world.”
– Liu Xin
Loewentheil China Photography Collection Featured in “The New York Times”
New York Times reporter Eve M. Kahn highlights The Loewentheil Collection’s exhibition Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs.
“Time Magazine” Highlights Loewentheil Collection’s New York Exhibition
Time Magazine featured the Loewentheil Collection’s exhibition Masterpieces of Early Chinese Photography, as part of their coverage of Asia Week New York.
“Rare photographic images of the late Qing period, including the ones seen here, are on display in New York City through Mar. 20, as part of Asia Week New York. The exhibition, Masterpieces of Early Chinese Photography, presented by the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, showcases photographs from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection, which the shop says is the largest private collection of historical photos of China.”
BBC Features the Loewentheil Collection’s Thomas Child Exhibition
BBC News reports on Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs, part of Asian Art in London 2015.
“Landmark” Lai Fong exhibitions featured in “L’Oeil de la Photographie”
French photography journal L’Oeil de la Photographie (The Eye of Photography) highlighted the Loewentheil Collection’s two “landmark” exhibitions at Cornell University: Lai Fong (1839-1890): Photographer of China and Lai Fong and Thomas Child: Photographs of Late Qing Dynasty Chinese Street Life.
This unprecedented exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see China and its people through the lens of the Chinese master photographer at the historical moment before the epochal transformations of the 20th century. … Lai’s artistic legacy, grounded in traditional Chinese art, influenced generations of photographers including contemporary Chinese image-makers.
Loewentheil Collection’s Two Lai Fong Exhibitions Featured in “Fine Books & Collections”
Fine Books & Collections Magazine featured the Loewentheil Collection’s concurrent Lai Fong exhibitions – Lai Fong (c. 1839-1890): Photographer of China and Lai Fong and Thomas Child: Photographs of Late Qing Dynasty Chinese Street Life – in its latest issue.
“The landmark exhibition … presents nearly 50 Lai Fong photographs made in the 1870s and 1880s of China. The photographs have been selected from the renowned Loewentheil Collection, which includes more than 21,000 early photographs of China. The exhibition features magnificent views of a rapidly growing Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Xiamen, and important early portraits of the diverse people of late Qing Dynasty China.”
Lai Fong Photographs from The Loewentheil Collection on Exhibit at Cornell University
Lai Fong (ca. 1839-1890): Photographer of China
Cornell University, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
7 February 2020 – 14 June 2020
A concurrent exhibition, Lai Fong and Thomas Child: Photographs of Late Qing Dynasty Chinese Street Life, will be on view at Cornell’s Carl A. Kroch Library from February 7 to April 17, 2020.
Loewentheil China Photography Collection featured in “That’s Shanghai,” April 4, 2019
The Loewentheil China Photography Collection and its Beijing exhibition Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century were featured in That’s Shanghai, the Shanghai affiliate of China’s leading English-language publication. The magazine interviewed both Collection founder Stephan Loewentheil as well as exhibition Curator Philip Prodger on the legacy and importance of early photography in China.
“Three decades ago, New York City-based ‘super collector’ Stephan Loewentheil started acquiring early photographs of China. Now, the Loewentheil China Photography Collection counts more than 15,000 shots dating from the 1850s through the 1930s, making it one of the largest private archives of early China photography.”
Beijing exhibition featured in “The Daily Mail (UK),” January 15, 2019
UK newspaper The Daily Mail featured the Loewentheil Collection’s “singular” Beijing exhibition Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century.
“Vision and Reflection” exhibition featured in “Fine Books & Collections Magazine,” January 9, 2019
Nate Pedersen of Fine Books & Collections Magazine praises the Loewentheil Collection’s Beijing exhibition Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century, which “offers an exceedingly rare glimpse into the daily lives and landscapes of a country previously known to the West only through paintings and travelogues.”
Loewentheil Collection’s Beijing exhibition featured in “Asia Pacific Daily,” November 29, 2018
Chinese news agency Asia Pacific Daily reported on the Lowentheil Collection’s exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing, Vision and Reflection: Photographs of China in the 19th Century. Exhibition Curator Philip Prodger was interviewed, saying that “[Chinese photographers] were photographing in a new way, and I think even those Western photographers were integrating some of the tradition of Chinese painting and Chinese pictorial representation in their photographs.”
New Video Highlights the Loewentheil China Photography Collection
Masterpieces from the Loewentheil Collection on Exhibition in New York
Masterpieces of Early Chinese Photography
7 March 2017 – 20 March 2017
PRPH Books, New York
William Saunders Photographs from the Loewentheil Collection Exhibited at London’s Asia Art Week
Qing Dynasty Shanghai: The Photographs of William Saunders
4 November 2016 – 12 November 2016
China Exchange, London