Felice A. Beato

b. 1832 — d. 1909

Felice Beato British?, b. Italy, 1832-1909 Often confused with his brother Antonio, Venice-born Felice Beato was a pioneer photojournalist with strong ties to Britain. His first important work was done in partnership with James Robertson, superintendent and chief engraver for the Imperial Mint in Constantinople and husband of Beato's sister, Maria Matilde. With Robertson he photographed first in Malta in the early 1850s, then in Constantinople, Athens, Palestine, and Egypt. By the middle of the decade, Beato and Robertson were among the first to apply photography to the reportage of war, covering the Crimean conflict and the fall of Balaklava. Images of war and the exotic became Beato's specialty. With Robertson, he covered the Indian Mutiny (1857-59), works especially well known for their grisly views of the siege of Lucknow. His photographs of the Opium War, taken in the early 1860s, are thought to be the first western views of China; his depictions of the conquered Fort Taku are among the most stark and uncompromising documents of their time. Following China, Beato worked for some 15 years in Japan, where he produced a large body of work. In 1877 he sold his studio and negatives to Austrian photographer Baron Raimond von Stillfried und Ratenitz, and in the mid-1880s documented British military activities at Khartoum in the Sudan. In an 1886 issue of the British Journal of Photography, Beato was credited with an important improvement in the albumen process, which cut necessary exposure time. Around 1889 he settled in Burma, where he illustrated mail-order catalogues and sold native furniture and crafts. T.W.F.