China. A Photographer in Old Peking by Hedda Morrison.

Oxford University Press, 1985.  First edition hardcover in cloth, fine with near fine protected dust jacket that has a few tiny nicks. 266 pages.  Maps on endpapers. Before her marriage to Alastair Morrison, the photographer Hedda Hammer (1908–1991) lived and served as a photographer in Peking (Beijing), China, from 1933 to 1946. Working mostly outdoors because she did not have access to good flash equipment, she recorded street life, artists, workers, crafts workers, small businessmen, opium dens, actors, Buddhist monks, architecture, landscapes in the outskirts of the city, and more.  A remarkable visual record accompanied by Morrison’s detailed memoirs of life in the Chinese metropolis. After leaving China, Morrison resided and photographed in Sarawak and Canberra. Summary:

A Photographer in Old Peking (published 1985 by Oxford University Press) is a richly illustrated photographic memoir by German documentary photographer Hedda Morrison, documenting life in the Chinese capital (then commonly called Peking, now Beijing) between 1933 and 1946.

Context and Scope

Morrison came to Peking from Nazi Germany in 1933 to manage a German-owned photographic studio and spent the next thirteen years living, working, and photographing there. What began as a commercial assignment evolved into a deep engagement with the city’s people, streets, architecture, rituals, and everyday life during a period of profound change on the eve of the Communist revolution.

Photographic Record of a Vanished World

The core of the book is a large sequence of black-and-white photographs capturing Peking’s urban and cultural landscape: temple complexes, the Forbidden City and city walls, traditional hutongs (alley neighborhoods), craftsmen and vendors at work, monks, families, and street scenes that today have largely disappeared. Morrison’s photographs stand as both documentary evidence and aesthetic compositions, offering an intimate and empathetic view of a city on the brink of transformation.

Narrative and Visual Insight

Accompanying the images are Morrison’s own captions and memoir-like reflections that situate the photographs historically and personally. She invites readers to see beyond tourist clichés—to the rhythms of daily life, to the quiet dignity of her subjects, and to the architectural and social textures of old Peking before industrialization and political upheaval reshaped it.

Significance

A Photographer in Old Peking is valued both as a visual archive and as a historical document. It preserves a remarkable record of China at a time when modern development and revolution would soon alter the city forever, making the book an indispensable resource for historians, photographers, and anyone interested in cultural memory and urban change.