Looking for Japan: Early Japanese Photography

The Meiji Period in Japan (1868–1912) brought great changes to Japanese culture and society. Looking for Japan: Early Japanese Photography brings to the foreground how these cultural beliefs, traditions, and practices may have been packaged for, and influenced by, Western audiences via the newly established tourist trade. Objects range from single photographs and postcards to albums, from albumen travel photographs to hanging scroll collotypes. The exhibition spotlights hand-colored prints depicting landscapes, cities, and portraits, including historical Japanese architecture, hairstyles, clothing, weapons, and even tattoos. The highly personal, and sometimes provocative, images prompt us to consider history, culture, and societal change.

The exhibition will include photographs from the studios of Ogawa Kazumasa, Kusakabe Kimbei, Tamamura Kozaburo, Suzuki Shinichi II, and Stillfried and Anderson, among others.