Tempel van de vijf onsterfelijken, Guangzhou, China 1859

Pierre Joseph Rossier captured this stereoscopic photograph of the Temple of the Five Immortals in Guangzhou, China. Rossier, a Swiss photographer, documented China during a period of immense upheaval, the Second Opium War. In a way, this is a photograph of a photograph, as Rossier meticulously restages a pre-existing and pervasive Western image of China. The architecture in the background is monumental, but consider the people in the foreground, the composition suggests both distance and indifference. The figures become anthropological specimens for the consumption of a Western audience, reinforcing unequal power dynamics. In the Western imagination, these images often cemented harmful stereotypes, impacting trade, immigration, and foreign policy. What do these historical photographs mean when we look at them today? How do we contend with the artist's gaze?