Hedda Hammer (Morrison) was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1908. From an early age she had an interest in photography. In 1929 she enrolled at the Bavarian State Institute for Photography in Munich where she studied for three years. Two years after graduation Hedda, like many German artists and intellectuals, made plans to leave Germany which was coming increasingly under Nazi control. She answered an advertisement in a German photographic journal and secured a job as manager of the Hartung’s Photo Shop in Peking. From 1933 Hedda Morrison managed the German-owned commercial photographic studio in the Legation quarter which had a well-established clientele of customers including diplomats and resident foreigners. After her contract expired in 1938, she continued to work in Peking as a freelance photographer.
During her thirteen years in Peking, Hedda Morrison took thousands of photographs that document architecture and streetscapes, craftspeople at work, street vendors, and religious or folk customs. She was particularly interested in traditional crafts and took many series of photographs that record processes of making. Being a long-term resident of Peking she had an established network of contacts that provided her with unique access to people and places.
Hedda Morrison’s images contribute to the large body of professional and amateur photographs of China taken by Westerners in the period leading up to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. These photographs represent thin slices of space and time and contribute to a collective memory. Through their choice and presentation of subject matter, the photographers constructed their own image of China, which was primarily for Western audiences.
In 1946 Hedda married Alastair Morrison, an Australian who was born in Peking in 1915. Alastair is the son of Dr George Ernest Morrison (1862-1920). In 1897 G. E. Morrison was appointed Peking correspondent for 'The Times of London' and quickly became one of the most influential foreign correspondents and an authority on China. In 1912 Morrison became political advisor to Yuan Shikai, the first president of the Chinese Republic, and in 1919 he accompanied the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. From 1915 until 1949, the present-day Wangfujing Street in Peking was known as ‘Morrison Street’ by resident foreigners.
Alastair Morrison left China as a young child and did not return until 1940. He met Hedda Hammer soon after his arrival in Peking. They met again some years later and married in 1946. Owing to the unsettled political situation, Hedda and Alastair left China in late 1946. They lived in Sarawak from 1947 to 1967 before moving to Australia and settling in Canberra, where Alastair Morrison continues to reside.
The images seen here have been selected from a large group of photographs that were donated to the Powerhouse Museum by Alastair Morrison in 1992.
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