![](https://loewentheilcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Loewentheil-Waterfall-block1.jpg"?w=400&ch=DPR&dpr=2")
Lai Fong
1870s
Albumen silver print
29 x 21 cm
From the Loewentheil Collection
黎芳
1870年代
蛋白印相
29 x 21 厘米
洛文希尔收藏
Lai Fong’s photograph of the Dinghu waterfall follows the tradition of shan shui painting. Shan shui refers to a traditional style of Chinese painting depicting scenery or natural landscapes. It involves a complicated set of requirements for composition, form, and balance. Waterfalls are frequent subjects of this Chinese art form. In Lai Fong’s photograph, the artist creates drama by juxtaposing the white rushing water with the dark shadows of rocks and the still pool of water.
Lai Fong’s landscape photographs demonstrate that he admired shan shui paintings and followed this traditional style when he composed his views of natural landscapes, especially his exquisite waterfalls.
Shen Zhou. Lofty Mount Lu. Ming Dynasty. Ink on paper.
From the National Palace Museum.
The Dinghu waterfall that inspired Lai Fong’s photographic masterpiece is called the Flying Waterfall. It falls over 30 meters into a crystal clear pond known as the Dragon Pond. Lai Fong photographed the falls from this pond. His glass plate negative captures the final ten meters of the waterfall. Dinghu waterfall has been a tourist attraction since ancient times and still attracts visitors today, one hundred and fifty years after Lai Fong visited the site. More than one million people visit the nature reserve each year. Dragon Pond remains the most popular location for artists and photographs to make views of the waterfalls.
Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Waterfalls by Internationally Recognized Artists
Lai Fong’s landscapes are masterpieces of photographic art equal to the works of the most celebrated international masters such as Carleton Watkins in America and Gustave Le Gray in France. Like Watkins, who worked in the American West, Lai Fong captured the majesty and power of his nation’s landscape.
Lai Fong’s fame was temporarily eclipsed by the conflicts of twentieth-century China in which much of China’s photographic heritage was lost. Today the photographs of Le Gray and Watkins are collected by and shown in leading museums throughout the world. Lai Fong’s masterpieces merit the same honor.
China’s Earliest Landscape Photographs
Capturing the first photographic views of the Chinese landscape often involved long and difficult travel through steep, rocky terrain and wilderness. Photographers made the journey with large, heavy cameras, numerous fragile glass plates, and volatile chemicals.
Lai Fong managed to achieve remarkable results producing negatives despite the arduous circumstances of working with photographic chemistry in the challenging and diverse climates he encountered.
This waterfall is in the Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve, known as the “green gem” on the Tropic of Cancer, which was established as the first nature reserve in China in 1956. For thousands of years the waterfall has been revered as a sacred place. Dinghu Mountain is one of the four famous mountains of Lingnan. Located in Zhaoqing, the scenic mountain offers waterfalls, clear lakes, and pristine forests.
Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Site, features a rare 400-year old sub-tropical forest. Dinghu Mountain is known for its natural beauty and its biological diversity including many rare plants and animals under government protection.
Sunlight illuminates the Incense Burner Peak, kindling violet smoke;
from afar, the waterfall resembles a long river hung [on the mountain].
The waterfall flies straight down three thousand feet—
Has the silver stream of our galaxy plunged from highest heaven?
日照香炉生紫烟
遥看瀑布挂前川
飞流直下三千尺
疑是银河落九天
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