We shot Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi: inside China’s famed photo studio
- China Photo Studio in Beijing has been taking photos of China’s elite, as well as weddings and other events, since 1937
- The studio has survived a number of upheavals in its business and competition from new chains
Three majestic portraits greet visitors at the entrance to China Photo Studio in a bustling street in the Chinese capital, Beijing. The photos of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi, three of communist China’s founding fathers, also paint a picture of the studio’s storied past.
The photo of Zhou was reportedly the late premier’s favourite, and was on display at his funeral.
The Mao picture, restored by the studio, was taken by Hou Bo, his first full-time photographer. She snapped more than 4,700 photos of Mao and other Communist Party leaders.
“It was said that Chairman Mao didn’t really like having his photo taken because he wanted the cameras pointed at the masses of workers and farmers,” says 62-year-old Gao Liqi, who joined the studio in 1978, so the portrait is something of a rarity.
All central government leaders once had their photos taken by China Photo Studio. Mao was the only exception, he adds.
Established in 1937 in Shanghai by Wu Jianping, a rickshaw puller turned photographer who was a native of Jiangsu province in the country’s east, China Photo Studio made a name for itself through its portraits of the movers and shakers of Chinese politics. It was also the studio of choice for people in the entertainment industry, photographing stars for film promotions and earning cachet among the glitterati of old Shanghai.