John Thomson

John Thomson British, b. Scotland, 1837-1921 John Thomson studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in his native city. While best known for his views of street life in London, Thomson spent his early photographic career in the Far East. Between 1863-73, based at a studio in Singapore, he photographed India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. He spent two years photographing China, an ambitious project for which he traveled more than 5,500 miles. Returning to England, Thomson used his experiences, and his 2,000 negatives, to write and publish Illustrations of China and Its People (1873-74), a monumental four-volume work containing 200 collotype illustrations with descriptive text. In 1877 he collaborated with journalist Adolph Smith to publish Street Life in London, one of the first books to combine text with photographic illustrations (36 Woodburytype plates of London's poor) to document sociological case histories. In 1886 Thomson was appointed instructor of photography to the Royal Geographic Society, where he was a Fellow until his death. He became official photographer to Queen Victoria in 1881 and in 1910 received the same appointment under King George V. T.W.F.