Photography in Japan 1853-1912 [ハードカバー]

Many of us have grown up on the myths of Japan, on the fairly tale land of samurai and geisha, of castles and 10 foot square huts. Like the knights of Europe, it can be hard to distinguish between the real living beings and the legends. However, fortunately for a brief moment the ancient and the modern intersected, and cameras were able to capture a feudal society on the brink of change. Cameras are like time machines. One little click of a button, and a small slice of the past is captured and preserved, opening a window from then to now, and allowing modern people to experience something so far lost as to almost be unreal. While they seem to be relatively modern inventions, cameras have been around for over a century, and the images captured from so long ago are a fantastic treasure.

"Photography in Japan 1853-1912" is much more than just a picture book, however. It is a complete education on the history of photography in Japan, from its barren beginnings to its flourishing boom as the country modernized and a craving for Western technology meant a constant demand for new equipment and skilled photographers. Absolutely everything is here, including the earliest known photograph of a Japanese person, a castaway rescued by sailors, as well as impressions from Eliphalet Brown Jr., the official daguerreotypist for the Perry Expedition. This could easily be a college text book, and its depth and breadth of knowledge is astounding.

But for those less than interested in a history course on photography in Japan, and just want to be blown away by the images, it also has exactly what you need. Gathering the best of 50 worldwide collections, over 350 images show the ancient Japan of our dreams, with full-page, hand-colored images of samurai in their finest armor, and beautiful geisha in their most expensive and extravagant costumes. Some of the photographs would be impossible to achieve know, like castles uncluttered by power lines and parking lots. Not that everything is just posed work. Several photographers of the time were interested in more photojournalistic "slice-of-life" shots, showing people going about their daily business blissfully unaware that these stolen moments would be studied and appreciated in a book over a hundred years into the future.

The above book description mentions 350 photos, but you actually get over 400 rare illustrations. That's because on top of the photos, the book also includes lots of rare Japanese studio advertisements from way back, engravings directly related to the narrative, and other rarely (or never-before-seen) graphics relating to the subject of the book. The text is not a warmed-over review of all the same material found in other Japan Photo-histories, but offers one insight and revelation after another. The author also drags into the book a lot of photographers either never heard of before, or usually not associated with Japan. For example: Jack London, the author of "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" is discovered scrambling all over Japan, China, and Korea, trying to escape the Japanese police and military in those places, while shooting photos for a US Newspaper Syndicate. He gets arrested at least three times under incredible circumstances, driving the Japanese authorities to the limits of exasperation. Stories like this are non-stop covering Japanese photographic adventures from the 1850s all the way to the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912 (and even a little beyond!). There's lots of behind-the-scenes drama touching on the private lives of the photographers, who in most Old-Pictures-of-Japan type books are usually discussed only in direct relationship to the photographs they took. Author Bennett sweeps nothing under the rug as scandal after scandal follows in the footsteps of one intrepid photographer after another -- all while seeing them produce some of the finest photography the world has ever seen. In books such as this, we are generally used to seeing only the album views of Beato, Stillfried, Kimbei, Fasari, Tamamura and others. Bennett gives us all of those (including many images never published before) as well as rarely seen photo-portraits of all these photographers who are usually mentioned without a face to go with it. However, here for the first time, we are also introduced to many other "album view makers" that for one reason or another slipped through the cracks of history. In another departure from the standard fare, lots of old and beautiful stereoviews appear scattered throughout the book. As a lover of 3-D images, I was surprised at the amount of old stereoviews packed onto the pages, incuding several found in my own old boxes of views. No viewer is included -- as it was not meant to be a 3-D book -- but if you can get your eye-balls to cooperate, it's free-view heaven for those that handle it. So, if you like the history of photography in general, and Japan in specific, this latest offering in the field of Asian photographic history will not disappoint. Drawing on over 50 world-wide collections, it has almost every format and style of image in perfect historical balance from cover to cover, along with a fresh new text that never quits. Both the newcomer who wants to be introduced to it all, and the collector, dealer, or archivist who wants to be informed of all the latest diggings into the life and times of these major players (and many important minor ones as well) will probably end up cracking this book open on more than one occasion -- only to find themselves sucked into the world of old Lotus-Land Japan; a world long since wiped off the face of the earth.

This is a book about a very unfortunately forgotten era of photography. The Early works of the great photographers in Japan is finally brought to the general public and now we can see photos that we would have had to go to Japan to view. The Author has done exceptional research in getting the proper attribution to the correct photographers. I would now like to see a second volume from 1912-2007.