For this guest short article Raoul Endres who will also have a rather distinct “In Your Bag” next week. This week he uses something different with a book evaluation, “Photography in Japan.” I am quite the fan of Tuttle publishing, for those not familiar they are akin to the Japanese Penguin in terms of publishing. They span everything from literature, aesthetics, and obviously here … photography.
https://www.tuttle.co.jp/products/show/isbn:9784805313114/language:en
ISBN 978-4-8053-1311-4 (2006 edition, 2023 forthcoming)
Author Terry Bennett
Historical Context
Japan’s isolationist policy ended in 1853 with the arrival of Commodore Matthew C Perry in Tokyo Bay. Prior to this, just Dutch and Chinese traders were allowed via Nagasaki. The Americans forced Japan into the Kanagawa Treaty, ending the shogunate age. This opened the way for wester trade, exploration and industrial operations within Japan.
At the same time, photography was ending up being a practical medium, initially by means of the complex and sluggish Daguerreotype process, however rapidly supplanted with Frederick Scott Archers’ Wet Plate Collodion procedure (1851 ).
Photography in Japan 1853-1912 by Terry Bennett
“This book thinks about the professional photographers, Japanese and Western, who were associated with the early development of photography in Japan. The photos that have endured from the late Edo period to the end of the Meiji era tell us much about Japanese photo-history and Japan itself.”
Terry Bennett has actually been collecting nineteenth century Japanese photography because the 1980’s. Bennett brings to life not just the historic changes but likewise the characters that sought adventure in a land once so remote and strange to westerners. An odd selection of characters pressed the limits to forge much deeper into Japan, often as part of main diplomatic missions, to attempt to bring back images that could be printed and offered in albums to curious English and American audiences.
We see the clear development from adventurer with makeshift devices through to expertly skilled and equipped studio photographers. In between, regional Japanese obtain the skills, cameras and chemicals necessary to construct their own business endeavors. The book is burglarized these progressive stages with each focusing on succinct bios and examples of professional photographers operating in Japan at that time.
Consisted of are not just pictures but also ads for picture studios, calling cards and animations from expat newspapers of the time.
Photography in Japan is a remarkable insight, not just into the development of photography, however how opportunists found (and stopped working) methods to exploit western desire to experience a foreign land. There are many parallels to modern-day professional photographers working commercially whilst pursuing artistic ventures.
It is well worth the financial investment if you are interested in historic procedures or Japanese history, although I would suggest background reading on the procedures included to gain a much better understanding of the complexities involved with early photography, printing, and colorization.
A note on stereo
Bennet covers a duration when the industrial development of photography popularised stereographs to supply an immersive experience. Stereo albumen prints were offered in collections, to be used with basic audiences. These function throughout the book, and it is well worth obtaining a viewer to fully experience these slices of life in Edo/Meiji age Japan. Sadly, a few of the stereographs are printed too big; there is a maximum size determined by the range between your students, even more apart and the effect does not work.
Audiences are available online from Brian May’s (yes, that Brian May) London Stereo Museum. https://shop.londonstereo.com/OWL-B-ENV.html
Raoul Endres
———————————————————————— Raoul likes to play with analogue photography, especially wet plate collodion with his Tachihara. He prefers the physical
medium to Instagram, but can be found on twitter @raoulendres– JF