[Wikipedia Daily Article] July 17: Pierre Rossier

[Faraaz Damji]

   Pierre Rossier was a pioneering Swiss photographer whose albumen
   photographs, which include stereographs and cartes-de-visite, comprise
   portraits, cityscapes and landscapes.  He was commissioned by the
   London firm of Negretti and Zambra to travel to Asia and document the
   progress of the Anglo-French troops in the Second Opium War and,
   although he failed to join that military expedition, he remained in
   Asia for several years, producing the first commercial photographs of
   China, the Philippines, Japan and Siam (now Thailand).  He was the
   first professional photographer in Japan, where he trained Ueno
   Hikoma, Maeda Genzō, Horie Kuwajirō, as well as lesser known members
   of the first generation of Japanese photographers.  In Switzerland he
   established photographic studios in Fribourg and Einsiedeln, and he
   also produced images elsewhere in the country.  Rossier is an important
   figure in the early history of photography not only because of his own
   images, but also because of the critical impact of his teaching in the
   early days of Japanese photography.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Rossier


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1762:
   Peter III was killed at Ropsha, a few days after he was deposed as
   Emperor of Russia and replaced by his wife Catherine II.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia)

1815:
   Napoleonic Wars: Napoléon made his formal surrender to British
   forces on board the HMS Bellerophon off the port of Rochefort, France,
   ending the Hundred Days.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France)

1936:
   Nationalist rebels in Spain attempted a coup d'etat against the
   Second Spanish Republic, commencing the Spanish Civil War.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War)

1945:
   Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry S.  Truman met at the
   Potsdam Conference to decide how to administer post-World War II
   Germany.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Conference)

1998:
   Biologists reported in the scientific journal Science how they
   sequenced the genome of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes
   syphilis.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treponema_pallidum)


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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   phlegmatic: Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phlegmatic)


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Wikiquote of the day:

   Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit:
   fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable
   manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and
   till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence.  -- Isaac Watts

   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts)