Heinz (Heinrich Josef Anton Alois) von Perckhammer (1895–1965) was a prominent South-Tyrolean photographer and photojournalist, who grew up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became famous for documenting daily life, rituals and architecture while living in China in the 1920s. He served aboard the navy ship SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth during the Siege of Tsingtao (27 August to 7 November 1914) and was a Japanese prisoner of war (1917–1919) in World War I (1914–1918). Perckhammer remained in China for several years after his release, taking photographs for what would become three highly regarded documentary books published in 1928 and 1930. The first was a volume of Chinese nudes, many taken in Macao brothels, Edle Nacktheit in China (‘The Culture of the Nude in China’, Berlin: Eigenbrödler-Verlag, 1928); a collection of Beijing street photography, Peking (Berlin: Albertus-Verlag, 1928); and a third volume, Von China und Chinese (‘China and the Chinese’, Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Füssli, 1930) ‘depicting everyday life in the cities and villages of China’. Perckhammer assembled these books upon his return to Europe and before he commenced working as a photojournalist for the Berlin-based illustrated weekly Die Woche in 1929. He founded a studio in Berlin in 1932, where he focused on nudes and fashion photography. In the late 1930s, Perckhammer became a supporter of the Nazi party and some of his photographs were published as propaganda imagery for the ‘Strength Through Joy’ movement, before he began working as a war photographer during World War II (1939–1945). His photo studio in Berlin was bombed out in 1942. Having lost his source of income, Perckhammer moved to Munich after the war, before returning to his birth town of Meran (Merano, South Tyrol, modern-day Italy), where he lived until 1965.

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In early twentieth-century China, Perckhammer followed, among others, Hungarian navy officer and photographer Dezso Bozóky (1871–1957), who had been stationed in the South China Sea after the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) from 1907 to 1909, recording sites in Hong Kong, Guangdong province and along China’s coast. Like Bozóky, Perckhammer travelled to various regions of China and his photographs display a Westerner’s curiosity for Chinese customs and culture. Today, the images in his publications are of great historical value as they document the beginnings of China’s modernisation and social change in Beijing during the early years of the Republic. For the aspiring photojournalist, the 1920s presented an era of transformation, and the fifteen hundred photographs taken by Perckhammer constitute an archive of extraordinary scope and diverse subject matter. Although the publication includes only 200 images, Peking offers a compelling account of the artist’s fascination with various subjects, such as the Imperial Palace, religious architecture, city views, street scenes and glimpses of daily life. These subjects fascinated Perckhammer and drove him to document his experiences. The peak of his professional activity occurred at a time when photography had gained wider practice, regular exhibitions and increased recognition in China. This was during the establishment of the Beijing Guangshe (Beijing Light Society) in 1923, initially named the Yishu Xiezhen Yanjiuhui (Research Association for Art Photography). Founded by a group of around twenty members, the society held annual exhibitions starting in 1924, attracting up to five thousand visitors and garnering increasing—and often critical—press attention.