In 1972, China’s Central Weather Bureau compiled and published a book filled with color photographs of clouds, each paired with an illustration of the photograph and some text explaining the clouds’ features. Although it was meant as an educational source for meteorologists, the publication, with its striking pictures and clean design, would not appear out of place at an international art-book fair. A copy caught the eyes of Magnum photographer Martin Parr and the Dutch photographers known as WassinkLundgren, who included it the in their own book, The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900s to the Present. The compendium — originally released by Aperture last year and recently reprinted in a mid-sized edition — features hundreds of photobooks by Chinese creators, including individuals from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as those by foreigners about China.

There’s no established term in the Chinese language that translates to “photobook,” and according to Ruben Lundgren of WassinkLundgren, Chinese historians have not done significant research into the history and development of the medium in their country. Parr and WassinkLundgren wanted to explore the prevalence and variety of such books but also simply to relay knowledge of Chinese photobooks to outside readers. The Chinese Photobook — which, even at mid size, is still very thick and hefty — is not intended to be a complete history of these publications, but rather represents Parr and WassinkLundgren’s own selection, determined by content as well as design, historical relevance, and how a book was edited. Like the volume on clouds, many of the titles were not originally conceived of as artistic expressions, but they present absorbing photographs and suggest how images have functioned over the years as a government tool.

As photographer and critic Gu Zheng writes in an introductory text, the development of the photobook reflects the history of modern China. The Republican period witnessed relative freedom in individual publishing, with photography groups such as the Peking Light Society forming in the early 1900s to hold exhibitions and critiques of people’s work. After 1949, when Mao founded the People’s Republic of China, books showcased more controlled, uniform styles and pictorial content that served as propaganda. The state became the primary maker and distributor of photobooks, which, aside from plenty of portraits of the Chairman, were full of staged pictures that told the tale of a thriving nation and depicted its hardworking citizens and successful public healthcare system. One delightful accordion-style book, compiled by the Institute for Architecture in 1960, presents photographs of old and new palace lanterns that celebrate the nation’s rich traditional craft. Independent art and photography then experienced a revival under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping; loosening constraints on authorship led to the growth of China’s contemporary photo publishing scene — albeit cautiously, still under the threat of censorship. In addition to a series of essays that provides context for understanding the links between stylistic and historical developments, The Chinese Photobook offers a chronological survey of its subject. Each example is illustrated by a sample of spreads as well as a short blurb discussing its historical context, format, and creator. Some are rare works by early Western travelers who helped introduce photography, a Western technology, to China and made commercially successful albums of their journeys. For instance, Herbert Clarence White, who with his brother established art schools in China for printing and hand-tinting, published Peking the Beautiful. It’s a 1927 suite of hand-colored photographs of the city, each presented within a decorative border; the whole volume is set within an exquisite box with a hand-stitched silk cover. Other books are much more chilling. Photographed by a Chinese doctor, one example documents the horrors of the 1910–11 Manchurian plague. The title was commissioned by a special plague committee and intended for presentation to foreign delegates at the 1911 International Plague Conference. You might be more familiar with the contemporary books Parr and Lundgren selected, including creations by the still-working photographers Liu Zheng and Ren Hang. But at 448 pages long, The Chinese Photobook is a treasure trove; within it, even die-hard photobook enthusiasts are bound to discover printed matter unlikely to turn up at a store or a fair.