Born in Woolwich, England, William Saunders (1832-1892) travelled to China as an engineer in 1860. He returned to Britain, studied photography, and then went back to China with photographic equipment in order to open a commercial studio in Shanghai in 1862. Located on Shanghai’s bustling Bund, his studio was the city’s most successful photographic enterprise in the late nineteenth century. He was the first photographer known to produce hand-colored photographs in China. Saunders focused primarily on portraiture but also photographed street life, local customs, current events, scenic views, and even executions. A series of fifty prints—Portfolio of Sketches of Chinese Life and Character—was published in 1871. This portfolio, in addition to his photographic contributions to Illustrated London News and other publications, disseminated information about life in China to Westerners. He was the dominant studio in Shanghai until his retirement in 1888.
