“AMBASSADOR OF GOOD WILL” WU
Dr. Francis Wu, master photographer of China, and a Doctor of Philosophy, gave his more than 200 listeners at a recent lecture in Reading, much to think about. Only in his preliminary remarks did he mention the type of camera he used to secure a picture. “It’s imagination and feeling that counts,” he kept repeating.
He showed us some of his 100 photographs of “Classic Beauties of China” which he recently published in Hong Kong, a labor of four years, including a great deal of research. “To The Chinese” he said, “The Beauty of a woman is not her body, but her face, her eyes, her mouth, her hands.”
Perhaps the photograph that appealed most was his character study of an old Chinese refugee. A wide, black band was about her head and tucked under her disheveled chignon. Her face had thousand wrinkles, and she was laughing! “When I found her,” the master photographer explained “her face registered all the terror and sorrow she had suffered. And it wasn’t until I had served tea and cakes, and asked her to remember her happiest days, that she began to smile. It was her childhood memories. Suddenly then, she laughed, and that was when I snapped her picture.” With a twinkle in her eyes, she added, “I wanted her one tooth to show!”
Dr. Wu has five children, and one of his daughters posed for one of the “Classic Beauties” that he exhibited. And a son, not quite three, is as adept as an adult in handling a camera. Mrs. Wu, who during his absence manages the studio that employs 20, is also an artist, and does all the tinting of the photographs.
He is enjoying his stay here with folks interested in photography, and wants to come back again.
We consider him an ambassador of good will.
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