Threads of Light: Chinese Embroidery from Suzhou and the Photography of Robert Glenn Ketchum

by Los Angeles Fowler Museum of Cultural histor University of California, Patrick Dowdey (Editor), Meifan Zhang (Editor)

Intrigued with the possibility of integrating texture in his work, American landscape photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum has a long-standing collaboration with the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute (SERI) in China. This splendidly designed volume describes the history of SERI with illustrations of its traditional embroidery and then proceeds to pair Ketchumís stunning photographic images with their exquisite embroidered counterparts. Essays locate the achievement of the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute within the context of traditional Chinese embroidery and trace the willingness to innovate that has long characterized this remarkable institution.

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Ben Haines]

Insane. Yang Shouyu changed the game.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected at all - instead of a book about Suzhou embroidery illustrated by Ketchum photographs, it's actually a catalogue with essays for an exhibition of Suzhou-embroidered versions of Ketchum's photographs. But even though that wasn't what I went in for, it's still a terrific book about the development of modern (1980s-1990s) techniques used by the top embroidery school and workshop in China, and their adaptation to the photo-realistic work needed to reproduce Ketchum's landscape photos. Even the edition I read (UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, c1999), which I read in a digital version and which featured a lot of slightly unclear black and white photographs, included enough full colour images to be breathtaking, and the essays on the history of Chinese embroidery, Suzhou embroidery, and the artistic choices going into the creation of these pieces, were genuinely illuminating. I'm still looking for that general introduction to Suzhou embroidery, but this was well worth reading.