SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR: SEIGE OF SHANGHAI., Ah Fong Studio.

SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR: SEIGE OF SHANGHAI.
Ah Fong Studio. The Sino-Japanese Hostilities. Shanghai. Shanghai: August to November, 1937
An album of 110 gelatin silver prints by the Ah fong studio, numbered 1-110. Oblong 8vo. 160 x 235 mm. Mostly mounted in pairs or threes on black paper leaves, and detailing the aerial bombardment of Shanghai, the Chinese resistance, Western ships at harbor and Japanese troops within the city, with printed index list bound in at the front. The album bound in black cardboard and cord with cover illustration in silver of Japanese tanks, planes, bombs crushing Shanghai.
Provenance: John Varga, merchant seaman on the SS President Hayes, visiting Shanghai in 1939. (Index leaf signed and dated by Varga

A rare and historic photograph album recording the Siege of Shanghai, in part historical photo-reportage, in part propaganda. Most of the photographs are in black and white but it includes 5 spectacular night-time prints in black and red, showing the city burning. The Battle of Shanghai was one of the largest and bloodiest engagements fought between the armies of Imperial Japan and the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As the battle progressed, Japanese artillery and aerial bombing would lay waste to much of the city, as the ground troops fought, often house to house. These photos by Ah Fong show, in unsparing detail, the extent of the damage and loss of life among the civilian population. The publication of this album in English, indicates that it was made for overseas consumption, to shock and draw overseas support for the Chinese cause. The Chinese Republican government, asked repeatedly for military assistance from the west, as their forces were steadily pushed back by the better-armed Japanese. In the event, although public opinion swung sharply against Japan, and American loan assistance to China was expanded, there would be no concrete action against Japan until the American embargo of Japan-bound oil in 1941. The Chinese fought bitterly against the Japanese invaders for 8 years.

The An Fong studio was established in Hong Kong in 1859 by Lai Afong, a commercial photographer trained by western photographers. He went on to open up studios in Canton, Shanghai and Wei-Hai-Wei. When Lai's son took over the studios in around 1900 it continued its good work. At the time of the Japanese invasion the studio issued several topical albums, and is particularly known for his savage photography in his album, "The Rape of Nanking," which brought the visual news of those Japanese atrocities to the west. This album is very much in the same vein. The album is known in two forms, one in 2 volumes with 201 images (known in 2 copies, BL India Office Library and one in private hands) with a separate volume comprising a 12pp index, and in this form with the 110 images (5 in Institutional hands), all are extremely rare on the market.