Saunders, William (d. 1892), British commercial photographer, and the longest-established Western operator in China. In January 1862 he opened one of Shanghai's first studios, and over a quarter of a century to 1887 produced innumerable images of current events and local scenery. He also photographed other ports in China and Japan (including an important visit to Yokohama in 1862), and contributed regularly to Western publications such as the Far East (Shanghai) and the Illustrated London News. Saunders's major achievement is his early series Chinese Life and Character. First advertised in 1871, the 50 scenes became instant classics and remain to this day extraordinarily evocative and successful. Most scenes are peaceful, and they cover many aspects of native life in Shanghai. They were all carefully staged, and everything is determinedly traditional, no details revealing the ‘modernization’ already under way in the foreign settlements. This was, and still is, Eternal China.
— Régine Thiriez
