Suanders, William, Fumeurs D'opium

Saunders, William, Albumen print, c.1890, titled in manuscript 'Fumeurs d'opium' pasted to period card stamped '47' in top right corner, image size 20.5cm x 26.5cm, card size 31cm x 41cm, with gallery card for Northern Light Gallery, Denmark and priced at £1400.00

Note: see the Met Museum New York, item 1981.1229.51.2, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/263193

William Thomas Saunders, 1832-1892, was a British-born photographer who settled in China and became one of the earliest professional photographers to establish a studio in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty. Pioneering the introduction of hand-colored photographs within China.

Born in England in 1832, Saunders first traveled to China in 1860, as an engineer. He then sailed back to Britain, studied photography, and arrived again in China in January 1862. Beginning in Shanghai, he established one of Shanghai's first professional photo studios, located conveniently near Astor House Hotel at Shanghai's Central Business District. Indeed, it was over a period of twenty-five years that the Saunders studio really managed to blossom into an entity, testament to his merging of considerable photographic ability with business acumen and marketing talents.

While primarily a portrait photographer, Saunders' continued interest in China saw him record current events, landscapes, and locals. His photographs give an insight into a period of Chinese history where Shanghai was being developed as an international trading center.

Saunders' photographs provide a close look at the various people of Shanghai, showing the original modes of living and day-to-day activities of the people. In photographing the studio portraits of Saunders, many props were symbolic of the subject's profession or status; he seems to always pay much attention to what his subjects were wearing and their hairstyles. Even though many of Saunders's views of everyday life were posed, which was due to process limitations in photography at that time, they are still very valid representations of 19th-century Chinese life. His work was extremely important in bringing a degree of understanding of Chinese practices and ways of life to Western circles. Following retirement to England in the late 1880s, Saunders maintained a continuing pattern of trips to China. During one of these trips back to Shanghai, his health rapidly deteriorated, and he died in December 1892 after reaching the age of sixty years due to bronchitis.