From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
Japan had been isolated from the west for centuries and it was only late in the 19th century that the emergence of photography began to reveal Japan’s feudal societies and culture to western societies.
After 1854 when the U.S. and other nations opened up trade with Japan, foreign travelers began to leave behind photographic records of the country. Photographers like the Italian traveler and war correspondent Felice Beato (1832–1909) took images of the exotic cultures through the lens of western eyes. .
From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
From Japanese Dream - Published by Hatje Cantz
Some of these photographs are hand-coloured and staged as dioramas to document ‘truthfully’ what was seen – domestic workers in private homes, performances of sacred rituals, day-labourers, the world of geishas and women, and the universe of male dress codes and body art. Landscapes also reveal the impact of early japanese aesthetic that was to later inspire many western artists.
Arriving in 1863 Beato spent more than twenty years in the port city of Yokohama capturing the earliest glimpses of this hidden culture, and later had a great influence on the style of the Yokohama School. Many of these early images taken by travelers were compiled into photographic volumes but most of the authorship has since been lost. The book Japanese Dreams attempts to retrieve some of these lost scenes into a single volume, exposing these candid, almost innocent visions of Japan before industrialization took hold and before Japan’s rude awakening into the modern era and the wars of the 20th century.
Publication date Europe July 12 / publication date USA 9|30|2012
Hatje Cantz
