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“It was truly an adventure to travel to Japan in the
second half of the 19th century, loaded with unwieldy and heavy
photographic equipment. From their Yokohama studios, the pioneers
of photography in Japan, Felice Beato and Adolpho Farsari, exported
unfamiliar and remarkable pictures to Europe, giving the West
an idea of what life was like in ancient Japan. Their Japanese
pupils established a new professional group: Images of "ancient"
Japan were produced specifically for the Western public, staged
in studios, later hand-colored and compiled in richly ornamented
lacquer albums.
The Philipp March collection documents not only a unique
chapter of the history of photography, but also provides insights
about the way European and, later, Japanese photographers
staged their image of Japan in accordance with Western expectations.The
photographs of the Philipp March Collection published in this
volume, many of which are being made available to the public
for the first time ever, depict the vanished feudal Japan
in a way unique both in its historical meaning and in its
aesthetic appearance. They include rare works by Felice Beato
and Adolpho Farsari and numerous pictures by their Japanese
followers Ueno Hikoma, Kusakabe Kinbei, Tamamura Kihei, and
Ogawa Kazume. Through intensive research by the collector,
it was for the first time possible to attribute several works
to the artists. The remarkable quality of the Philipp March
collection definitely makes it one of the leading private
collections of Old Japan Photography worldwide.”
Claudia Delank, Co-Editor of the art book “The Adventure
of Japanese Photography 1860 – 1890”, Kehrer Verlag,
Heidelberg
Claudia Delank is a specialist and international acknowledged
expert in East Asian Art, teaches at various German universities,
and has researched and published on early Japanese photography.
Claudia Delank is Art Historian and Assistant Professor for
Japanese History of Art at the Seminar for Oriental History
of Art, University of Bonn/Germany. Dr. Delank has published
many books and articles on Japanese art and its interrelation
with Western art, such as "The Bauhaus and Japan",
"The Sculpture of Enku (1632 - 1695)” and “Japanese
wood-art of the 1980’s and 1990’s". She regularly
lectures on these topics in international settings.
Translated from the German by Gérard A. Goodrow, Cologne.
Gerard Goodrow is the Director of Art Cologne and former head
of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s in London.
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