San Francisco Public Library

Japan in early photographs, the Aimé Humbert Collection at the Museum of Ethnography, Neuchâtel, Greogoire Mayor / Akiyoshi Tani (eds.) ; foreword by Marc-Olivier Gonseth

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-291)

photographs

no index present

non fiction

Japan in early photographs

bibliographycatalogs

1008364200

Greogoire Mayor / Akiyoshi Tani (eds.) ; foreword by Marc-Olivier Gonseth

the Aimé Humbert Collection at the Museum of Ethnography, Neuchâtel

"Photographs taken in Japan between the late Edo and early Meiji periods that found their way overseas played a major role in forming Westerners' image of Japan. Among these collections, the pictures gathered by the Swiss diplomat Aimé Humbert (1819-1900) in the 1860s were crucial in building lasting representations of the island nation: many of these, mainly collected in 1863/64 during a sojourn in Yokohama and Edo, were used as sources for the well-known and largely distributed engravings of his famous book Le Japon illustré, published in Paris in 1870. Belonging to the collection of the MEN, these beautiful and well-preserved photographs are published here for the first time. Presented by Japanese and Swiss scholars before the narrative backdrop of their acquisition and application by foreigners, they offer a striking view on a lost world."-- Publisher's website

Foreword / Marc-Olivier Gonseth -- Lost in representation?: photographs in the Humbert Collection, a new awareness of Japan / Grégoire Mayor and Akiyoshi Tani -- Note to the reader -- "The most sophisticated process in Western art": the role of photography in Aimé Humbert's mission / Grégoire Mayor -- An investigation into the Aimé Humbert collection using photo-historical research / Akiyoshi Tani -- Spring and summer 1863 -- "He took with him an excellent photographer, Beato, from whom I would have the entire collection" -- Discovering a closed world -- The raise of the touristic gaze: the excursion to Kamakura -- The views of Yokohama -- Hidden meanings in the Humbert Collection of Edo photography / Akiyoshi Tani -- Seven reproductions in the collection -- The long quest for documentation -- Pictures by Felice Beato -- Wirgman's reproductions by Beato -- Pictures by Shimooka Renjō -- Images with uncertain paternity -- An enigma: the Amélie Colomb annotated pictures -- Some uses of photography as a source for the engravings in "Le Tour du monde" and "Le Japan illustré" -- Appendix A: The contents of a letter by Aimé Humbert compared with the album of Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek -- Comparison charts with other albums -- Appendix B: Author's biographies -- Appendix C: Missing photographs according to Humbert's list of parcels from October 1863 -- Appendix D: Bibliography