The Kutztown Patriot, Kutztown, Pa., Thursday, September 18, 1952

“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.

China Mail – Hong Kong - Friday, March 24, 1950

ONE –MAN PHOTO SHOW OPENED

The Photographic Society of Hong Kong launched a new series of one-man shows yesterday with an exhibition of pictures by Mr. Francis Wu

The Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, and Lady Grantham opened the exhibition.

The pictures, numbering exactly 100, will be displayed at the salon of the Society, Prince’s Building, for a week.

They range from facial studies to landscapes to interior scenes.

It is planned to hold these shows towards the latter part of each month.

Mr. Wu, who is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and The Photographic Society of America is one of the Colony’s leading photographers.

His show yesterday contained many distinguished portraits. His outdoor scenes were a visual record of Hong Kong’s many moods – they captured alike the drabness and the oppressive glare of the summer sun.

Mr. Wu is planning to devote considerable attention to color photography, which he believes will soon replace black and white.

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.