3-005-550 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Korean children, Chinese men, and others at the farmers' market, Vladivostok, Russia, 1899. Showing event described in Eleanor Pray's letter of April 27, 1899: "Yesterday morning I asked Mademoiselle [Lindholm family governess] to go to the bazaar with me to take some photos, and we took Dou Kee with us. I hired a small Korean to stand in front of a stall to be photographed. The Chinese got out like lightning for they say a camera has the evil eye. The Korean wanted also to run away when he found what was up, but the Chinese were quite willing the evil eye should be cast on him so they kept pushing him back and there he stood half scared to death. In a second after I pressed the button, there were Chinese around us ten deep all clamoring to see the picture. When the small Korean found he wasn't killed, and got five kopecks for pay, he was quite in another frame of mind." In: Photograph album of Pray family expatriate life in Vladivostok, Russia. Eleanor L. Pray Collection.