Hi. I am helping my husband in his photographic research and we have reached a dead end. I am hoping that someone on this Forum might be able to help.
We are looking for any information about the photographer Amanda M. Genung who, with her son Charles, spent a couple of years in Hong Kong taking portraits (most likely from 1858-1860). She may have left California to avoid an abusive husband who had followed her from the east coast (of the U.S.), from where she fled from with her son in 1850. The facts and dates mentioned are a combination of conjecture and recollections from memoirs 50 years after the fact, so ANY verification that Amanda was in Hong Kong would be appreciated. It is possible she traveled and operated under her maiden name, Amanda Baldwin.
If anyone has any reference books on early Hong Kong photographers (such as "First-Photographs of Hong Kong-1858-1875”), would you be wiling to check the indexes for Genung or Baldwin?
BTW - Sean has produced a free guide on how to date early photographs by their housings. You can pick up a PDF at http://fixedintimebook.blogspot.com/.
— gloria