Japan in early photographs
Subtitle: the Aimé Humbert Collection at the Museum of Ethnography, Neuchâtel
By: Greogoire Mayor / Akiyoshi Tani (eds.) ; foreword by Marc-Olivier Gonseth
Contributors: Musée d'ethnographie (Neuchâtel, Switzerland)
Publisher: MEN, Musee d'ethnographie de Neuchatel; Arnoldsche Art Publishers
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Neuchatel; Stuttgart
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
ISBN-13: 9783897900271
Subjects: Exhibitions; Photograph collections; Travel; Catalogs; Pictorial works; Description and travel; Photography; History; Art collections; Expositions; Descriptions et voyages; Musée d'ethnographie (Neuchâtel, Switzerland)
Description: "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.
Notes: On the occasion of an exhibition held Museum of Ethnography, Neuchatel, June 19, 2014 - April 19, 2015.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-291).
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Marc-Olivier Gonseth; title: Lost in representation?: photographs in the Humbert Collection, a new awareness of Japan / Grégoire Mayor and Akiyoshi Tani; title: Note to the reader; title: "The most sophisticated process in Western art": the role of photography in Aimé Humbert's mission / Grégoire Mayor; title: An investigation into the Aimé Humbert collection using photo-historical research / Akiyoshi Tani; title: Spring and summer 1863; title: "He took with him an excellent photographer, Beato, from whom I would have the entire collection"; title: Discovering a closed world; title: The raise of the touristic gaze: the excursion to Kamakura; title: The views of Yokohama; title: Hidden meanings in the Humbert Collection of Edo photography / Akiyoshi Tani; title: Seven reproductions in the collection; title: The long quest for documentation; title: Pictures by Felice Beato; title: Wirgman's reproductions by Beato; title: Pictures by Shimooka Renjō; title: Images with uncertain paternity; title: An enigma: the Amélie Colomb annotated pictures; title: Some uses of photography as a source for the engravings in "Le Tour du monde" and "Le Japan illustré"; title: Appendix A: The contents of a letter by Aimé Humbert compared with the album of Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek; title: Comparison charts with other albums; title: Appendix B: Author's biographies; title: Appendix C: Missing photographs according to Humbert's list of parcels from October 1863; title: Appendix D: Bibliography