Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper examines the material culture of porcelain photo in Hong Kong. Porcelain photo, also known as photo-ceramics or vitrified photography on porcelain, is an obsolete, historic photographic printing process to mark a photographic image permanently on porcelain and/or ceramic plate. The technique and application of such was originated in mid 19th Century Europe and found its place to emerge and efflorescence since the mid 20th Century Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the technique is employed to make black-and-white photographic portraits for the deceased, or as an honouring act. Porcelain photo, as such, permeates rituals of life and death and situated in networks of public and private spheres. The paper discusses the material culture, technical history and application of porcelain photo in Hong Kong informed by oral history, field research and study of private museum collection. The immortality of this photo object (claim for an eternal existence) and the empirical discovery of the opposite (e.g. the evidence of fading and deterioration in public cemetery and town hall) draw a new perspective to re-examine the ontology of porcelain photo. The author will also argue for the cultural uniqueness and pervasiveness of porcelain photo in Hong Kong and the Chinese context.