Cleveland Museum of Art

Untitled (View on the Praya, looking east, Hong Kong)

William Pryor Floyd

Date

1866–73

Medium

albumen print

Culture

England, 19th century

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Floyd’s views of Hong Kong possess a clarity of organization and elegance lacking in most of his competitors’ photographs. The row of white, Western-style commercial buildings divides the composition horizontally into thirds. In the foreground are water and a single Chinese boat that leads the eye to the closest building. The crisp cubic forms of the buildings stand out against the uniformly dark hillside that serves as their backdrop. Praya, a term used in colonial Hong Kong for the road by the waterfront, came from the Portuguese word praia , which means "beach."

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.