Felice Beato: a photographer on the Eastern road

Abstract

This is a survey of one of the major but least recognised photographers of the 19thC. In recent years Felice Beato (1832-1909) has come to be recognised as one of the major photographers of the 19thC, yet there has been no general survey of his singular life and work. Born in Venice, Beato came of age in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. As an apprentice in 1856, he photographed the sites of the Crimean War, thereby launching a long, remarkably adventurous career. Over the next half century he would follow in the wake of the British Empire: Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; India, where he photographed the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny; and China, where he chronicled the Second Opium War. He spent 30 years in Japan and Burma, where he was in the vanguard of Western photographers as they opened their borders to the West. This abundantly illustrated book captures Beato's entire oeuvre in both images and narrative and serves as a tribute to his extraordinary life.

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