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Chinese
place names are given in the manner
of the time, with their modern
names shown in brackets at the
first use.
Fate – and, as events proved,
good fortune
– led Hedda Hammer to Asia.
An undemanding post in Stuttgart
as a photographic assistant, unease
at Germany’s dark future,
and a horoscope that hinted of
success overseas prompted her
move. An advertisement for a position
as a photographic studio manager
in Peking (Beijing) was the catalyst.
Aged twenty-five, knowing no one
outside Germany, Hammer sailed
for China in 1933. An umbrella
and
a pistol, parting gifts from her
parents to ward
off the elements and mankind,
were unceremoniously dropped overboard
by her
on departure.
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Boy
in a Mongol hat, Peking.
By Hedda Morrison, from
A Photographer in
Old Peking.
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From 1933 – 38 Hammer was the
manager of Hartung’s Photo Shop,
a German firm
in Peking. Like other such establishments
Hartung’s sold, mostly to foreign
residents
and visitors, not only studio portraits
but also the matic albums presenting
the sights
of Peking and other notable places in
China. At Hartung’s Hammer, responsible
for seventeen Chinese assistants, sharpened
her technical skills and learnt passable
Chinese. But her interests lay elsewhere,
in the fading glories of imperial Peking
and
its environs. Urban landscapes, architectural
views, street portraits, handicraft
studies and rural scenes – the
ethnography of people and places –
were her recurring subjects.
In 1938 she parted with Hartung’s
and, as a freelance photographer, continued
with similar work and some modest book
commissions. An accumulated knowledge
of Peking, her Rollei cameras, a bicycle
and a small darkroom were her mainstays.
For Hedda Hammer the craft of photography
was uppermost, and through pursuit
of its demands her image making matured
in China. Her style was marked by an
intuitive sensibility to light; strong,
often challenging vantage points; and
fine, carefully balanced compositions.
Equally important was her natural rapport
with people; and, as Alastair Morrison,
her future husband, recalls, a particular
affinity
to Chinese and other Asians: ‘She
was good humoured and patient, and treated
everyone alike. She liked to record
the beauty of commonplace people and
scenes.’
Partly because of the troubles and turmoil
of the 1930s and 1940s, and later the
West’s fascination with the ‘new’
China, Hammer’s photographs of
‘old’ Peking were not widely
published. Many of them appeared finally
in 1985, in her best-known book named
below. By then Hedda Morrison was in
her mid-seventies.
A Photographer In Old Peking.
For book details see References. |
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