Ancient photographers...UNEARTHED!: Felice A. Beato (Series) – Part 3.
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This is the third part of this series dedicated to those forgotten photographers whose photos have made history preserving important events for posterity. Maybe you have seen the other parts already but if not, i invite you to step by HERE and HERE and take a look. Today we have another special guest to our blog: Felice A. Beato: a pioneering photographer who is considered among the first ones to take images from East Asia(China, Japan, India) and one of the first known war photographers!!!
He is also known for his portraits, views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and the Mediterranean region and for bringing a new and fresh point of view of the Asian way of life to people on European Continent and the Americas. His photos showed to people in the West how many people lived on the East: their customes, their architecture, their believes...
He was a pioneer in almost every aspect of photography: his images of such events as the Sepoys Rebellion in India, the Second Opium War in China and the Sudanese Colonial Wars in Sudan represents itself the first substantial body of photojournalism known. In many particular ways he influenced other photographers, mainly in Japan, where he worked closely with numerous other photographers and artists, leaving a rich heritage in terms of mode, composition and photographic style.
Who was Felice Beato?
He was born in Venice, Italy in 1832. Italian by birth but British by adoption, Beato's early life is little know. Many aspects of his early life remain hidden for history and what is known is largely due to some notes and certificates recently discovered in 2009.
Fig 1. *Felice Beato (possibly a self-portrait) as seen in 1866 (https://en.wikipedia.org)*
However is well known that his association with photography began in the 1850s, when he formed a close relationship with his brother-in-law and noted photographer James Robertson. Robertson introduced Beato to the photography world and together explored the magnificent Islamic architecture of the Constantinople area whilst experimenting with new photographic techniques: one of the first well know photos taken by Beato is the “Sultan Ahmed’s Blue Mosque” photo taken circa 1855.
Fig 2. *Sultan Ahmed’s Blue Mosque photo by Felice Beato in 1855 (https://en.wikipedia.org)*
His association with Robertson is a total success opening a photographic studio in Constantinople in 1854 called: “Robertson & Beato”. Together, they traveled to Malta, Greece and Jerusalem between 1854 and 1857 in several commercial photographic expeditions, resulting in some of the first quality images taken in these places.
Fig 3. *Photograph of the Bridge of the Porta Reale, Valletta, Malta, 1856. Felice Beato. (https://www.antikvariat.net)*
Fig 4. *Photograph of the “Dome of the Rock”, Jerusalem, 1856. Felice Beato (https://www.metmuseum.org)*
Fig 5. *Photograph of the west facade of the Library of Hadrian in Athens, Greece, 1856. Felice Beato&James Robertson (http://sites.middlebury.edu)*
Soon Beato and company became renowned photographers by their time and as Beato’s reputation developed, he began working independently on his own projects. Beato's fascination with religious sites lead him to travel to Jerusalem but the more he traveled the world the more intrigued he became by the way of life of people living in other parts of the globe far from what they know as the “civilized part of the world” by that time.
That's the reason why he launched himself into a career that would take him to distant parts of the world willing to take pictures of those particular ways of lifes and then, back in home, let his contemporaries to know the existing wealth beyond European borders.
His travels led him to Crimea, India, China, Japan, Korea, Sudan and Burma, places where he spent a considerable amount of time taking pictures from to document its architecture, people and landscape.
Fig 6. *Shops and Street, Chinese City of Pekin, October 1860 by Felice Beato (https://commons.wikimedia.org)*
Fig 7. *Rich japanese lady riding a norimono or sedan chair with a bodyguard, 1866 (https://monovisions.com)*
Fig 8. *Photograph of group of Friendly Warriors in Desert at Assouan, Sudan, 1884(http://www.luminous-lint.com)*
His work by that time was focused on collecting foreign people's experiences and their way of life but Beato's work was also driven for other reasons beyond pure social interest: in those times the world saw many bloody wars scattered among almost the whole known world. Wherever Beato went, there was a recent war ongoing or almost finishing. Given his expertise in foreign countries customs, his previous experiences photographing the Crimea War and and his refined photographics techniques, he was hired by the War Office in London to document the effects of the fighting of the India’s First War of Independence, from there Beato's life would never detach from these violent scenarios where he took some of his most iconic and at the same time terrible photos.
First war photographer...?
Beato is know too by being one of the first known war photograpers.
He was told once that he was always photographing in the middle of adversity and misery.
From the Crimea War to the Second Opium War in China he documented some of Asia’s most violent conflicts and was steadily gaining recognition as an established war photographer and somehow one of the founding fathers of photojournalism. Unlike some contemporaries who prefer not to show the destroyed bodies on the ground or the devastations of war, Beato tried to capture through his lens the dark side of the war and the evil inside the human nature.
Is is widely accepted that Beato took the firsts photographies of corpses on a battlefield during the siege of Lucknow in the middle of the Sepoys Rebellion in India.
Fig 9. *Interior of the Sikandar Bagh after the slaughter of 2,000 indian rebels, April 1858. This is one of the first photos in history depicting dead bodies (https://scroll.in)*
Due to the fact that he travelled alongside the soldiers during their campaigns, Beato witnessed the actual events which he later restaged in his photographs. Always accompanied by a full caravan of native workers every time helping him set up the camera and travel comfortably, he was able to closely photograph the vast majority of the conflicts of the time.
Fig 10. *British Empire troops in Handoub during the Sudanese Colonial Wars(https://www.metmuseum.org)*
Fig 11. *Interior of the Redan, Russian Battery, Crimea, 1854 (https://www.rct.uk)*
Fig 12, 13. *Inside the Taku Forts after the capture of this fort by British and native forces durinf the Second Opium War, 1860, China (http://www.executedtoday.com)*
Beato is known too for bringing information about some rare customs that were usually used in some Asian countries of that time such as crucifixion, a painful moment that he captured several times with his lens and most people believed extinct.
Fig 14. *Bandits being crucified by Burmese villagers. Beato's work shown european people that those methods still were used.(https://cvltnation.com)*
In addition, Beato created the first hand-coloured photographs of Japan. To do this, he worked with artist and journalist Charles Wirgman, who eventually became his business partner. Later, Beato employed Japanese watercolour artists to tint his photos.
Fig 15. *Japanese criminal about to be beheaded, hand-coloured photo previously taken in black&white by Felice Beato. (https://cvltnation.com)*
The last country he visited before returning to Italy was Burma. Arriving in 1887 and leaving in 1905, Beato opened a curiosity shop in Mandalay, where he sold photographs, furniture, and other artworks. Eventually, Beato returned to Italy, where he died in 1909.
Legacy and acknowledgment
Beato's scenes of the architecture and people of East Asia are as well known as his war images. In his initial steps into the world of the photography, his work was closely related to Robertson's work but later, despite being heavily influenced by other artists, he developed his own methods which led his photography earning a place in the annals of history.
By that time most of photographers avoid showing dead corpses and the violence of war and Beato’s images went much further, with not only dead or dying soldiers in the foreground but showing the adversal effects of war in people's life. It was these gruesome additions that marked him as an innovator, the first photographer willing to show the reality of death and destruction on the battlefield. While his images of corpses and skeletons gained him notoriety, the poignancy and starkness of the ruined buildings in many of his Indian scenes are a documentary tour de force.
Final thoughts...by now...
This is the 3rd part of a series of articles dedicated to ancient photographs. Many more series regarding vintage photos who immortalized weird and amazing things and their photographers are coming...just follow me to ensure don't miss even one of the articles that will be published.
So if you are an enthusiast of historical photograph and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!
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