Heaven Ascending Peak near Sing-Chang 1869

This is John Thomson’s landscape photograph, "Heaven Ascending Peak near Sing-Chang." Thomson was a Scottish photographer whose images provide insights into 19th-century China, a time when it was opening up to the West. This photograph straddles the line between documentation and artistry. Thomson's work was motivated by a desire to portray the people and places he encountered; yet, his photographs also reveal the colonial gaze through which he interpreted these subjects. The image presents a carefully constructed view of the Chinese landscape, meant to evoke feelings of both awe and exoticism in its Western viewers. While seemingly objective, this photograph is deeply enmeshed in the power dynamics of the time, reflecting how the West perceived and documented non-Western cultures. Consider how it invited viewers to see China through a lens of romanticism but also reinforces cultural distance.