Gezicht op woningen langs een pad in de bergen before 1920

Donald Mennie made this photograph of dwellings along a mountain path sometime before his death in 1944. The image presents a timeless scene of rural life, likely taken somewhere in China. It is a tranquil vista of a remote village, with its unpaved paths and simple stone buildings. During the first half of the twentieth century, photography in China was in its early stages of development. Artistic expression through photography was frequently intertwined with documentation, and often promoted an idealized image of the country's landscape and people. It’s worth considering how Mennie, as a Western photographer, might have perceived and framed this particular view of Chinese life. Was he aiming to capture an 'authentic' scene, or perhaps to construct a romantic vision of a faraway land? To fully appreciate this photograph, we need to delve deeper into the history of photography in China, and into Mennie's body of work. This would allow us to understand both the social context in which it was created, and the photographer's own perspective and motivations.