晚清中国老照片 连起历史与现实
Thomas Child, a British engineer, traveled to China in 1870 for work but was so entranced by the scenery and culture that he stayed for nearly two decades.
1870年，英国工程师托马斯•蔡尔德(Thomas Child)到中国工作，但是被那里的风光和文化迷住了，待了近20年。
He imported cameras to set up a sideline business as a portrait and landscape photographer, and his works were published in magazines and books.
他进口了一些相机，干起肖像和风景摄影师的副业，他的作品发表在杂志和图书上。
He also marketed them to tourists and dignitaries.
他还把它们推广给游客和达官要人。
The accompanying texts were a mix of admiration and condescension for traditions that Westerners of the time considered primitive.
配图文字交织着对中国传统的仰慕和屈尊俯就——当时的西方人认为有些传统很野蛮。
The Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection, which belongs to photo dealers in Brooklyn, has reunited hundreds of Mr Child’s works and traced the descendants of people who posed for him.
斯蒂芬•洛文希尔中国历史摄影收藏公司(Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection)是布鲁克林的几个照片交易商办的。
An exhibition of part of the Loewentheil holdings, Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs, opens Friday at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College in Manhattan.
它收集了成百上千件蔡尔德的作品，追踪采访了一些拍摄对象的后裔。周五，展示洛文希尔部分收藏的展览《清代北京：托马斯•蔡尔德的照片》(Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs)在曼哈顿巴鲁克学院(Baruch College)的西德尼•米什金画廊(Sidney Mishkin Gallery)开幕。
Stephan and Jacob Loewentheil, a father-and-son team, own about 15,000 photographs of China taken before the 1910s.
斯蒂芬和雅各布•洛文希尔(Stephan and Jacob Loewentheil)这对父子组合拥有约1.5万张在1910年之前的中国拍摄的照片。
The show’s curator, Stacey Lambrow, and Jacob Loewentheil are writing a book about Mr Child.
该展览的策展人斯泰西•兰姆布罗(Stacey Lambrow)和雅各布•洛文希尔正在写一本关于蔡尔德的书。
(It is partly based on Mr Child’s diaries, which were preserved by Terry Bennett, a British historian who has long specialized in photos of 19th-century China.)
（它部分基于蔡尔德的日记，这些日记由英国史学家特里•贝内特[Terry Bennett]保管，他长期致力于研究19世纪中国的照片。）
Mr Child, a Shropshire native, left England at 29, leaving behind his wife, Ellen, and three children, though they eventually joined him.
蔡尔德来自什罗普郡，离开英格兰的时候为29岁，留下了妻子埃伦(Ellen)和三个孩子，不过他们后来还是跟他团聚了。
His assignment was to inspect gasworks for a government agency at a time of conflict between the Chinese and foreign powers.
在中国与外国列强冲突不断之际，他的任务是为一家政府机构检查煤气厂。
It is not known how he trained as a photographer.
他如何学会摄影则不得而之。
In China, the technology was so unfamiliar that people gathered when he took pictures.
在中国，这项技术当时相当罕见，当他拍照的时候会有人围上来。
Mr Child photographed the Great Wall as well as pagodas, temples, bridges, crowded harbors, roadsides lined with stone sculptures and humble storefronts.
蔡尔德既拍过长城，也拍过高塔庙宇、桥梁、拥挤的港口、布满石像与简陋店面的街边。
He documented the practice of dismantling palace walls damaged by decay or war and recycling the stones for other construction.
他记录下了宫墙因风化或战争分崩离析，而其中的石块继而用于其他建筑的做法。
In his captions, letters and journals he complained about dirty streets, insects and rat infestations.
在他撰写的图片解说、信函与日记里，他抱怨街道肮脏、虫鼠成灾。
He gently mocked local superstitions, the sound of temple bells that rang in harmonious discord and funeral rituals that excel in pomp and expenditure.
他还略开玩笑地谈起当地人的迷信行为、庙里传来的和谐的不和谐钟声，以及长于排场与花销的葬礼。
He photographed peddlers, beggars, religious leaders, and a young aristocratic bride and groom named Zeng Ji Fen and Nie Ji Gui on their wedding day.
他拍过小贩、乞丐、宗教领袖，还在曾纪芬与聂缉椝结婚那天拍下了这对年轻的贵族新娘和新郎。
Raymond Watt, a descendant of that couple, is a retiree living in Queens.
二人的后代雷蒙德•瓦特(Raymond Watt)如今生活在纽约皇后区，退了休。
He said in an interview that he did not know the photo existed until the Loewentheils showed it last year in London.
他接受采访时称，直到洛文希尔父子去年在伦敦展出这张照片时，他才知道了它的存在。
He is scheduled to attend the exhibition opening and meet some of Mr Child’s descendants.
他计划出席这次展览的开幕式，并与蔡尔德的后人见面。
With the portrait, Mr Watt said, we get back the memory and refresh the history.
通过这幅人物照，瓦特表示，我们找到了回忆，更新了历史。
In 1889, Mr Child returned to England.
到了1889年，蔡尔德返回英格兰。
He remained infatuated with China, and he gave his family home at the outskirts of London a Chinese name that has been roughly translated as Studio of Everlasting Tranquillity.
他依然痴迷于中国，给伦敦郊外的自家房屋起了一个中文名叫永宁居。
He was killed in 1898 when his horse-drawn carriage overturned.
他在1898年死于马车倾覆事故。
His family kept some of his paperwork, but few other records survive.
他的家人保存了他的一些文字档案，但没有多少其他记录留了下来。
His photos sometimes turn up unlabeled at auctions; properly attributed, they can sell for thousands of dollars.
他拍的照片有时会无名地出现在拍卖会上；如果有了正确署名，便能卖出数千美元。
They have also ended up in institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.; and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
它们还出现在艺术机构中，包括大都会艺术博物馆(Metropolitan Museum of Art)、马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的皮博迪艾塞克斯博物馆(Peabody Essex Museum)及洛杉矶的盖蒂博物馆(Getty Museum)。
Collections of early photos of China at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.
史密森尼学会(Smithsonian Institution)设在华盛顿的弗瑞尔艺廊(Freer Gallery of Art)与赛克勒画廊(Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery in Washington will be covered in a book due out early next year, Painting With Light: Photography at the Freer/Sackler.
Sackler Gallery)收藏的中国早期照片将集结到一本名为《光之画作：弗瑞尔-赛克勒摄影集》(Painting With Light: Photography at the Freer/Sackler)的著作中，定于明年初问世。
David Hogge, one of the authors, said the photos are treasured partly as documentation of buildings and artworks that were later destroyed by looters or warfare, or taken to American or European museums.
作者之一霍大为(David Hogge)表示，这批照片颇为珍贵，一部分原因是它们记录的一些建筑与艺术品后来因掠夺或战争而遭到损毁，或者是被带去了美欧的博物馆。
The art historian Roberta Wue, who is an editor of a coming book about early photographs from China and Japan, said scholarship in the field has burgeoned in recent years despite the widespread destruction of archives in China.
艺术史学者伍美华(Roberta Wue)在编辑一本有关中国与日本早期照片的书，即将出版。她表示，尽管在中国的档案遭到普遍破坏，但该领域的学术研究近年来呈爆炸之势。
Evidence has surfaced that Chinese photographers quickly adapted the equipment brought in by Westerners, and that their clients, including prostitutes, began commissioning photos of themselves as advertisements.
有证据显示，当时的中国摄影师很快学会了西方人带来的设备，而包括娼妓在内的顾客开始委托他们拍摄照片来做广告。
The Loewentheils have been building their collection partly through auctions.
洛文希尔父子一直在通过拍卖会来扩充收藏。
In 2014, at Cordier Auctions & Appraisals in Harrisburg, Pa., they paid about $500,000 for an album of China images from 1860 by the Italian-born photographer Felice Beato.
在宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡的科迪尔拍卖与评估行(Cordier Auctions & Appraisals)于2014年举行的拍卖会上，他们花了大约50万美元拍下意大利出生的摄影师费利切•贝亚托(Felice Beato)于1860年拍下的一本中国影集。
In November, at the China Exchange in London, the Loewentheils will exhibit hand-tinted 19th-century photos of Shanghai by William Saunders, a British engineer.
今年11月，在伦敦的中国站(China Exchange)，洛文希尔父子将展出英国工程师威廉•桑德斯(William Saunders)拍摄的19世纪上海的手工上色照片。
Stephan Loewentheil wrote in an email that his family’s holdings are still growing and are not for sale.
斯蒂芬•洛文希尔在电子邮件中表示，他们家族的收藏还在不断扩充，不会出售。
I hope to place my collection into a worthy location intact, he wrote.
我希望把自己的收藏完好无损地放到一个好地方，信中写道。
