Timed to coincide with the F|S exhibition POWER | PLAY China’s Empress Dowager photographs of the Empress Dowager Cixi, dating from c.1903, the conference will focus on the subject of imperial portraiture across Asia and the Middle East during the advent of photography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

While the exhibition itself addresses the unique circumstances and intention of the Cixi photographs, the conference will provide an opportunity for a broader comparative analysis of the engagement with photography in the context of portraiture in ruling courts across Asia.