Sydney David Gambo (1890-1968) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is a scholar and sociologist who studies China, and also a very successful amateur photographer. In 1908, a teenager, Gambo, first came to China on a trip with his parents. He was fascinated by the ancient and mysterious country in the East. In his own words, the trip to China was "like being bitten by an oriental insect".
City gate, Chongqing 1917-1919
Weighing salt, Sichuan Suining 1917-1919
Fruit stand, Suining County, Sichuan, 1917
Pedestrians in Suining County, Sichuan, 1917
In 1917, a resident in a temple in Xindu County, Sichuan.
During the 4 months' journey, they took more than 3500 black and white photographs with different scenery and rich contents. In 1968, Gambo died in New York. But some of Gambo's photographs remained undiscovered until a close look revealed hundreds of artificially colored slides in several sandalwood boxes in the closet and nearly 6,000 black-and-white photographic negatives in several other shoe boxes.