Reflecting Truth

Japanese Photography in the 19th Century

Edited by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere and Mikiko Hirayama

This publication shows how scholarly investigation of Japanese photography in recent years has entered an important transitional stage – moving beyond its focus on the introduction of new discoveries and descriptions of collections, to a more sophisticated investigation of photography in historical and cultural contexts. At one time marginalised as either a practical technique or amateur art form, photography has now earned full recognition as an area of scholarly inquiry. It now invites reflection on issues of visuality, technology, and national identity in Japanese art during its transition to modernity as well as in contemporary society.
Contributions by Himeno Junichi (on the early development of photography in Japan), Sebastian Dobson (focussing on the colourful figure of Felice Beato), Luke Gartlan (on Baron Raimond von Stillfried-Ratenicz), Allen Hockley (on photographic albums produced by commercial studios in the 1880s and 1890s), Kinoshita Naoyuki (exploring the tradition of war portraiture in Japan) and Mikiko Hirayama (describing the transition from the pioneering stages of photography in Japan into the modern era).

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Status:

Available: In Print

€42.00$54.00

Author:

Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere

Mikiko Hirayama

Category:

Asian Studies - Japanese Art

BIC2:

Japan, History of art / art & design styles

ISBN13:

9789074822763

Publication Year:

2004

Edition info:

Version:

Paperback

Publication Type:

Book

Pages, Illustrations:

112 pp. 60 b/w illus.

Imprint:

Hotei Publishing

Language:

English

Biographical note

Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere is founding Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich. She received her BA (Archaeology, 1986), MA (Regional Studies, 1988) and Ph.D. (art history, 1998) from Harvard University. Her publications include: Vessels of Influence (Duckworth, forthcoming), editor and contributor to Hall of the Thirty-Three Bays: Photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto (SCVA, 1997) and Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th-19th Centuries (British Museum Press, 2002), and editor of Births and Rebirths (Hotei, 2001) and Reflecting the Truth: Japanese Photography in the 19th-century (Hotei, 2004) with Mikiko Hirayama. She wrote essays and entries in Japan's Golden Age, Momoyama (Dallas Museum of Art, 1996) and Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868 (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1998, and Jiki (Museo Internazionale Delle Ceramiche, 2004). Her research interests include, Japanese decoration, early modern ceramics in East Asia and trade networks, the history of exhibition and collecting in Japan and in Europe.
Mikiko Hirayama was the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in 2002. She is currently Assistant Professor of Japanese Art History at the University of Cincinatti, Ohio. Hirayama received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001 having already published several articles, including ‘Ishii Hakutei and the Future of Japanese Painting’ in Art Journal (Autumn 1996), pp. 57-63. Hirayama’s research focuses on the study of modern Japanese art, Japanese photography, art criticism and theory.

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