Description
A chemistry student from Edinburgh University, John Thomson moved to the Far East in 1863, traveling and photographing throughout the 1860s in Cambodia, Ceylon, China, India, Indochina, Malaysia, and Singapore. He relocated to London in 1872, publishing the Asian images in numerous volumes. In 1876 he began making the pictures that would illustrate Adolph Smith’s Street Life in London, an exposé of urban poverty.
In 1879 Thomson was elected to the Royal Photographic Society; two years later he became Queen Victoria’s Official Photographer. He was appointed professor of photography at the Royal Geographic Society in 1886 and was later named Official Photographer to George V.
