Hong Kong

Description

hand-coloured wood engraving. View from ‘The Illustrated London News’.

Illustrated Magazines first launched in the 1840s, soon flourished all throughout Europe and America, reflecting the growing interest of the educated elite in everything foreign and strange and providing first pictures of local and international news to the emerging new working class even before many could read. Circulations in excess of 100,000 were not uncommon.
These weeklies sent “corresponding artists” – a modern-day journalist and photographer rolled into one – to accompany voyages or travel to events in order to sketch the scene as history unfolded itself. These sketches were rushed back home where skilled artisans engraved them on wood blocks, literally day and night, as their readers anticipated eagerly every new publication and report as much as today. Thus, they became the forerunners of today’s international weeklies; today, prized photographs are key-elements of journalism; during the days of the Illustrated Magazines, these highly artistic wood cuts and engravings served the same purpose, surviving as historically accurate records and exquisitely engraved works of art.