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ARNOLD_GENTHE

                                             July      22, 2015
                                             September 19, 2015

                                             A version of this was
                                             published here:

                                               http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/07/26/1405780/-Chinatown-Tour


Arnold Genthe was a man who was inspired to
become a photographer by San Francisco's
Chinatown.  Quoting Samuel Dickson's "Tales
of San Francisco" (1947):

    There was on small corner of San Francisco, eight
    square blocks in all, that was to change the
    course of Genthe's life.  he had been warned not
    to go through Chinatown without a guide.  That
    was just the kind of warning the adventurous
    spirit liked. ... he said: The painted balconies
    were hung with wind bells and flowered lanterns.
    Brocades and embroideries, bronzes and
    porcelains, carvings of jade and ivory, of coral
    and rose crystal, decorated the shop windows.
    Shuffling along in single file were the dark-clad
    silent figures of the men, their faces strange,
    inscrutable.  Children in gay silken costume
    thronged the sidewalks and doorways. From the
    windows in the 'Street of the Sing-song Girls'
    bright eyes peered out from under brighter
    headdresses.

Genthe understood that "the Chinese were deeply
superstitious about having their pictures taken",
and bought a "small pocket camera" and started
hanging around Chinatown to get people used to
seeing him there.  Genthe was thus taking candid
shots without his subjects permission, and
further he was not shy about modifying the
negatives afterwards, e.g. to scratch out someone
in the background in Western dress that spoiled
the flavor of exoticism he was going for.

                     Some of Genthe's photos were
                     captioned in pretty sleazy
                     ways... a white guy standing
                     around with a Chinese guy
                     behind him becomes "An
                     Unsuspecting Victim".



   But: the only reason we have any photographic
   record of San Francisco's Chinatown from the
   pre-Earthquake days is the work of Arnold Genthe.


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