Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 42, 2007
John Thomson (14 June 1837 – 7 October 1921) was a pioneering Scottish Victorian photographer, geographer and traveller. He was one of the first photographers to travel to the Far East, documenting the people, landscapes and artifacts of eastern cultures. On returning home, his work among the street people of London cemented his reputation, and is regarded as a classic work of social documentary which laid the foundations for photo journalism. He went on to become a fashionable Mayfair portrait photographer of High Society, gaining the Royal Warrant in 1881.
His photography from the Far East enlightened the Victorian audience of Britain about the land, people and cultures of China and South-East Asia. His pioneering work documenting the social conditions of the street people of London established him as one of the fathers of photo journalism, and his publishing activities mark him out as an innovator in combining photography with the printed word. In recognition of his work, one of the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro was named "Point Thomson" on his death in 1921.