Fascinating 19th Century Portraits of Native American Indians ~ By Photographer Frank A. Rinehart

Frank Albert Rinehart (1861-1928) was an American artist famous for his photographs depicting Native American personalities and scenes, especially the leaders and members of the delegations who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in Omaha.

Rinehart was born in Lodi, Illinois. He and his brother, Alfred, moved to Colorado in the 1870s and found employment at the Charles Bohm photography studio, in Denver. In 1881 the Rinehart brothers formed a partnership with famous Western photographer William Henry Jackson, who had achieved widespread fame for his images of the West. Under Jackson's teachings, Rinehart's perfected his professional skills, and developed a keen interest in Native American culture. Frank Rinehart and Anna, the receptionist of Jackson's studio, married and in 1885 moved to Nebraska. In downtown Omaha, Rinehart opened a studio in the Brandeis Building, where he worked until his death.

In 1898, and in occasion of the Indian Congress held in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, Rinehart was commissioned to photograph the event and the Native American personalities who attended it. Together with his assistant Adolph Muhr (who would later be employed by the famous photographer Edward S. Curtis), they produced what is now considered "one of the best photographic documentations of Indian leaders at the turn of the century"

Rinehart and Muhr photographed American Indians at the Indian Congress in a studio on the Exposition grounds with an 8 x 10 glass-negative camera with a German lens. Platinum prints were produced to achieve the broad range of tonal values that medium afforded [via wiki]


*click on images for a larger more splendid view*

              

"The dramatic beauty of these portraits is especially impressive as a departure from earlier, less sensitive photographs of Native Americans. Instead of being detached, ethnographic records, the Rinehart photographs are portraits of individuals with an emphasis on strength of expression. While Rinehart and Muhr were not the first photographers to portray Indian subjects with such dignity, this large body of work which was widely seen and distributed may have had an important influence in changing subsequent portrayals of Native Americans"
 ~Tom Southall, former photograph curator at the University of Kansas' Spencer Art Museum

500 Nations  Documentary on Native Americans: An exploration of the various Native American nations and their fall to the European conquerors.


"...probably the single best examination of Native American history and culture ever committed to film." ~  John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Photographer John Thomson ~ Stunning Photographs of 19th Century China.

John Thomson (1837-1921) was a pioneering Scottish photographer who, after traveling through various parts of Asia, settled in Hong Kong in 1868 and operated a studio there for the next four years. Using Hong Kong as his base, he traveled extensively throughout China and was the first known photographer to document the people and landscapes of China for publication in the western market. Returning to England, he published a four volume book entitled "Illustrations of China and its People" in London, 1873-1874.

Upon returning home, his work among the street people of London cemented his reputation, and is regarded as a classic instance of social documentary which laid the foundations for photojournalism. He went on to become a portrait photographer of High Society in Mayfair, gaining the Royal Warrant in 1881.

In recognition of his work, one of the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro was named "Point Thomson" on his death in 1921. Some of Thomson's work may be seen at the Royal Geographical Society's headquarters in London.

Pepohoan of Formosa, by John Thomson c.1874

Chinese Woman of the Labouring Class, by John Thomson c.1874

Chinese Man of the Labouring Class, by John Thomson c.1874

Island Temple On The River Min, by John Thomson 1870/1871

Lung-hwa-ta, or Pagoda of the Dragon’s Glory, in Shanghai, by John Thomson c.1874

Fukien Temple, by John Thomson c.1874

The Ming Tombs, Nanking, by John Thomson c.1874

Tartar (Manchu) Artillery-men, by John Thomson c.1874

Nankow Pass, China, by John Thomson c.1874


Thomson's travels in China were often perilous, as he visited remote, almost unpopulated regions far inland. Most of the people he encountered had never seen a Westerner or camera before. His expeditions were also especially challenging because he had to transport his bulky wooden camera, many large, fragile glass plates, and potentially explosive chemicals. He photographed in a wide variety of conditions and often had to improvise because chemicals were difficult to acquire. His subject matter varied enormously: from humble beggars and street people to Mandarins, Princes and senior government officials; from remote monasteries to Imperial Palaces; from simple rural villages to magnificent landscapes.

The Abbot and Monks of Kushan Monastery, by John Thomson c.1874

Workers on the Silent Highway; The Crawlers; Cast Iron Billy, by John Thomson 1876-1877

Thomson, King Mongkut of Siam

Then and now - contemporary views of John Thomson's Chinese photographs

Sheying: Shades of China 1850-1900. (Contemporaries of John Thomson)
Photography came to China at the start of the 1860s, introduced by foreigners but enthusiastically embraced by natives. In the decades leading up to the twentieth century, every incarnation of the new technology managed to replicate itself in the Chinese popular consciousness: formal landscapes, official portraiture, personal documentation, and architectural and street scenes. These extraordinarily rare images are the meat of Sheying: Shades of China 1850-1900.

The black-and-white photos, a mixture of work by transplanted Europeans and fledgling Chinese photographers, have the painterly shades and delicate composition of Europe’s ongoing pictorialism movement. But the pictures are unmistakably Chinese in subject matter. In a cramped Cantonese street, stall banners blot out the sky. Two prisoners pose stoically in cangues. There are countless images of harbors, filled with the bobbing handmade boats that powered the national economy. For all the influence the relatively established European photographers held, China proved itself to be an inimitable sitter. The collection provides a fascinating look at an empire before industrialization.