Interior of the South Taku Fort and Showing the Place of Landing
Felice Beato
Italian, 1825–1903
June 25th, 1859
A panoramic albumen silver print photograph by Felice Beato that records the interior of the South Taku Fort and the adjacent landing site, made to document military positions and the landscape during the 1859 campaign.
Your eye is pulled along a low, ridged embankment that bisects the view, with neat rows of curved military huts on one side and a vast, flat expanse of tidal channels on the other, producing a stark, strategic calm across an otherwise bleak shoreline.
As an early example of war photography and panoramic composition, Beato’s image helped shape Western visual understanding of colonial conflicts and advanced photography’s role as documentary evidence.
Medium
Albumen silver prints
Dimensions
8 11/16 × 33 1/2" (22.2 × 84.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden and the Estate of Vera Louise Fraser
Accession
1286.1974
Palette
Exhibitions
