A Polish officer, Paweł Zaremba, in 1900 was the first photographer for the birth of a city Harbin in Manchuria

At the turn of the 20th century, as the Russian Empire was building its railway network across Manchuria, a Polish officer named Paweł Zaremba was assigned to document the process. His photographs captured the transformation of an empty stretch of land into Harbinrecording how a modern city emerged as a byproduct of imperial logistics and engineering. Full essay (in Polish): Paweł Zaremba: tsarist officer who photographed the birth of Harbin