Can we tell this story from the perspective of these French innumerable soldiers, diplomats, missionaries, or single travelers who have tried for over a century and a half to translate their fascination with China and the Chinese in photographs .

It is this story, through some famous examples, and other less known, that propose to do this exhibition. We start with the first known images made in China ten years after the invention of the process by Daguerre to finish today. It’s certainly no longer the same China, but the fascination remains the same.

Few are those nowadays who have not traveled in China and published some pictures. Therefore the choice is difficult, we will confront some examples, juxtaposing the subjective reportage black and white to images of monumental contemporary architecture, mixing large format color and small black and white prints, scholarly research and spontaneous look, trying to translate into images the perplexity of foreigners confronted to such a huge and spectacular mutation from the closed and secret world of old China to the modern and vibrant world of today.

*image (left)
Bertrand MEUNIER,
Fron the sery:Erased, 1999-2007
ink jet on paper, 60x90cm，