Felice Beato

Felice Beato (c. 1832–1909) was an Italian-British photographer known for images of East Asia, including some of the earliest photographs of the Second Opium War and the Indian Rebellion.

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Second Opium War: A war fought from 1856 to 1860 between the Qing dynasty and Britain and France. Beato photographed the British-led campaign in China, including its aftermath.
Albumen print: A photographic print made with egg-white-coated paper sensitized with silver salts. This process produced many of Beato’s detailed prints for albums and sale.
James Robertson (photographer): A British photographer and engraver active in the Ottoman Empire and Asia during the nineteenth century. Robertson and Beato worked together in Constantinople and photographed the Crimean War.
History of photography: The development of photographic technologies, practices, institutions, and visual culture. Beato’s career shows photography’s shift from experiment to commercial and documentary medium.
Indian Rebellion of 1857: A major uprising against East India Company rule in northern and central India. Beato made some of the earliest photographic records of the rebellion’s aftermath.
Wet collodion process: A nineteenth-century photographic process using a glass plate coated with collodion and sensitized before exposure. Its relatively short exposures and sharp negatives enabled Beato’s outdoor and travel photography.
Charles Shepherd (photographer): A British photographer who partnered with Beato in a photographic studio in India. Their partnership produced commercial photographs and views in the 1860s.
Orientalism: A tradition of representing Asia and the Middle East through Western systems of knowledge and imagery. Beato’s albums circulated images of Asian places shaped for foreign buyers.
Taku Forts: A system of forts guarding the Hai River entrance to Tianjin, China. Beato photographed the forts after their capture during the Second Opium War.
Hand-coloring of photographs: The practice of applying pigments by hand to monochrome photographic prints. Colorists added color to many commercial photographs associated with Beato’s Japanese studio.