In 1932, Father Mauny left France for China and after 10 months in the Middle Kingdom took back with him to France 4,000 photos.

After writing detailed illustrations, he locked them in an iron safe.

The safe survived the Second World War and remained forgotten in the French missionaries' archive in Lyon until Christine Cornet, a renowned French researcher of Chinese history, discovered them in the late 1990s.

After causing a stir when shown in Europe, some are now on display in an exhibition entitled "Paysans de l'eau" (Family on the Water) at the Epsite Gallery in the Benetton Building, 651 Huaihai Zhonglu, Shanghai.

The exhibition, which runs to July 6, features about 40 pictures selected from those in the safe.

They document the lives of people living in boats and cruising along the Grand Canal in 1932.

The 1,400-year-old, 2,500-kilometre-long canal, also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, became home to local farmers deprived of their land and also businessmen after it was built.

While pictures by most Western missionaries to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are of novelties, those of Father Pere Joseph de Reviers de Mauny (1892-1974) are different.

The art lover, who drew cartoons as a hobby, had a more humane touch as he tried his best to merge himself into the lives of those on the boats.

In focus are girls rushing to riverbanks and picking flowers when their boats are anchored, fishermen handing over their hard-earned pennies in opium dens and their wives bargaining with hawkers looking to buy fish.

Through his pictures Father Mauny showed himself as a remarkable journalist, who snatched the most precious moments of common life and humbly resigned himself to his work.

(China Daily July 1, 2005)