# Yucho Chow
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{{short description|Chinese-Canadian photographer}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Yucho Chow
| image = File:Yucho Chow, before 1915.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name = Yucho Chow
| birth_date = {{birth date|1876|06|03}}
| birth_place = [Kaiping](/source/Kaiping), Guangdong, China
| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|11|10|1876|06|03}}
| death_place = [Vancouver](/source/Vancouver), British Columbia, Canada
| field = Photographer
| spouse =
}}
'''Yucho Chow''' ({{zh|s=周耀初|p=Zhōu Yàochū}}; 1876–1949) was a professional photographer who was Vancouver's first Chinese photographer and its most prolific. He ran a studio in Chinatown from 1906 to 1949.
==Life and career==
Yucho Chow was born on 3 June 1876, in Hoy Ping (now called Kaiping), Guangdong province, China.[Griffin, 27 April 2019.][Clement 2019, p. 29.] Leaving his wife and two children behind, he arrived in Canada in February 1902, with the requirement of paying the $100 [head tax](/source/Chinese_head_tax_in_Canada). It is rumoured that he worked as a house servant while apprenticing with an unknown photographer.[Clement 2019, p. 10.] His marketing slogan, which he emblazoned on his business cards and on the signs at the front of his studio, was "Rain or Shine. Anything. Anywhere. Anytime."[Clement 2019, p. 33.] He often produced photographs in postcard format.[{{Cite book|last=Waddington|first=Margaret|title=Biographies of B.C. Postcard Photographers|publisher=Vancouver Postcard Club|year=2006|page=11}}] Chow paid careful attention to his props and backdrops, using them to convey an aura of sophistication and success for his patrons.[Clement 2019, p. 34.] In 1935, his studio was extensively damaged by fire, and afterwards he changed his background from European opulence to a striking [Art Deco](/source/Art_Deco) style.[Clement 2019, p. 42.]
Over four decades, he captured photos of people across the arc of life's journey, from newborn babies to the recently deceased (whose photographs were sent back to family in China and Europe, and served as an informal death certificate).[Xu, 12 May 2019.] In 1915, Chow photographed the funeral procession of the Sikh activist [Mewa Singh](/source/Mewa_Singh_Lopoke).[Cheung, 29 December 2020.]
In 1927, he created a composite photograph of the Hoy Ping Benevolent Association.[Clement 2019, p. 110.] Chow portrayed [Dr. Sun Yat-Sen](/source/Sun_Yat-sen) on one of his final visits to Vancouver.[Clement 2019, p. 100.] His photograph of the young tap dancer Howard Fair appeared in the ''Vancouver Sun'' in 1938.[{{Cite news|date=8 December 1938|title=In 'Frolics'|work=The Vancouver Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25476653/the-vancouver-sun/|url-status=live|access-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628205604/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25476653/the-vancouver-sun/|archive-date=28 June 2020|via=[Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com) {{free access}}}}] Later shown in the same newspaper was his 1943 image of the paratrooper Richard Keye Mar.[{{Cite news|date=14 April 1943|title=Victoria Chinese is Parachute Fighter|work=The Vancouver Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25476775/the-vancouver-sun/|url-status=live|access-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628205648/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25476775/the-vancouver-sun/|archive-date=28 June 2020|via=[Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com) {{free access}}}}]
A number of Chow's children worked in the studio. His first assistant was his eldest daughter, Mabel Chow (1900–1940). Since the Yucho Chow Studio was open twenty four hours, Mabel worked long days and did everything from carrying the heavy tripod to developing the film. In the early years, she also was a frequent model for her father as he honed his skills on the camera.[Clement 2019, p. 38.]
In the 1930s, another daughter, Jessie Chow, joined the studio and was trained to hand paint photos using oils.[Clement 2019, p. 41.] At first she only painted in small articles like flowers and ties, but later expanded to colouring whole photographs.[Cheung, 16 May 2019.]
Upon Chow's sudden death of chronic [myocarditis](/source/myocarditis) in November 1949, his sons Peter and Philip Chow took over the studio and ran it until 1986.[Clement 2019, pp. 325, 330.] When they finally retired and closed the studio, all of the negatives, spanning almost eight decades, were discarded. Consequently, today most of Chow's work is hidden away in private family albums.[Clement 2019, p. 9.]
==Legacy==
A life-sized image of Chow was placed in an East Pender street window in 2017.[Lee-Young, 17 May 2017.]
In 2019, an month-long exhibition of 80 of his photographs was shown in Vancouver at the Chinese Canadian Museum.[Griffin, 3 May 2019.][Clement 2019, p. 13.] It took the curator, Catherine Clement, over eight years to find Chow's photographs which she uncovered one photo at a time, one family at a time.[Clement 2019, pp. 10, 12.]
A 344-page book of his photographs was published in 2019. ''Chinatown Through a Wide Lens: The Hidden Photographs of Yucho Chow'' showcases a wide range of these private photographs of diverse communities that were taken by him.[{{Cite web|title=Chinatown Through A Wide Lens|url=https://chinese-canadian-historical-society-of-bc.square.site/product/chinatown-through-a-wide-lens/9?cs=true|access-date=28 June 2020|website=Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia}}]
Artifacts from his Vancouver studios, including some portraits, are housed in the permanent collection of the [Museum of Vancouver](/source/Museum_of_Vancouver).[{{Cite web|date=25 June 2020|title=Collections search: Yucho Chow|url=https://openmov.museumofvancouver.ca/search?field_object_name_value=yucho%20chow&field_object_name_descriptive_value=&field_object_alternate_name_value=&field_object_keyword_search_pub_value=&field_object_catalogue_number_value=&field_object_department_value=All&field_object_area_broad_value=All&field_object_area_narrow_value=All&field_object_culture_value=&field_object_origin_country_value=&field_object_former_cultural_des_value=&field_object_origin_province_value=&field_object_origin_municipality_value=&field_object_date_begin_value_1=&field_object_date_end_value_1=|access-date=25 June 2020|website=Museum of Vancouver}}]
{| class="wikitable"
|+Yucho Chow Studio Locations