The Camera Magazine – April 1939

Portrait Print Analysis
Butterfly Ying by Francis Wu

Butterfly Ying By Francis Wu

All the way from sorely beset Hong Kong comes this delightful portrait of a young Chinese woman.

The photographer, one Mr. Wu, has given it the title of “Madam Butterfly Ying” We have this to say of the madam: she is a fine looking girl “in any language” and in particular as Americans evaluate oriental pulchritude.

The print submitted is 9 ¼ x 13, and is nicely modeled and balanced as to lighting. It is either printed direct from a paper negative or projected through some screen to simulate that effect. While the reproduction may lose some of the delicate detail, it is indicated in the original. Attractive curls flank either side of the face and add to the quaintness of the subject.

Where have we ever seen such tiny hands? We have heard of custom of confining the feet of the Chinese women to keep them small, but these hands seem to be positively childish, as we know hands. Being in the foreground they would photograph somewhat larger than normal, so we may only guess how small they really are.

If the lady is an actress, as implied in the title, she is good. Her smile appears to be candid as one could wish. There may or may not be some significance in the position of the hands, but in this country they suggest affection. My opinion is that both subject and photographer desired to show their diminutive proportions.

Just imagine what a fine composition if the dress were darker and of simple design. Then the whole picture would present a series of masses, which would support each other and lead back to the face through the dark of the dress and the gray of the ground.

There are some feelings in flatness due to the light coming from a frontal position. If it were more to the side the modeling, or lift, of the face, would have been improved. But there is such delicacy of gradation that the flat light becomes only of slight consequence.

The spacing of the head is ideal, giving ample room in front of the face, which always suggests that there is really something ahead at which the subject is looking.

We have always understood that photography in China had not developed beyond the simple “recording” type, and most of the photographs sent us from there have substantiated this belief. But this man has actually sensed the pictorial possibilities in portrait photography and has shown his subject as something more than a mere Chinese woman. He indicates that she is alive, quite alert, and possesses those feminine attributes that make woman attractive to man.

I have no information as to the availability of photographic materials in China, but imagine they are mostly imported. If so their very perishable nature would preclude importation of any great variety of films, papers, etc. Therefore these Orientals must have to work with limited choice of materials. That makes any advance effort more meritorious. They can’t turn just the exact paper emulsion to suit any kind of negative they may happen to make. In view of this condition I am not sure but this print might shame some of our own photographers.

If the reproduction shows too much contrast it is because of the buff paper upon which it is made.