Image: Kusakabe Kimbei, The Kusakabe studio on Honchō-dōri, Yokohama. ca. 1895. James Davidson collection (a033361). Courtesy of UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada
Photography・Modernity・Japan ― 写真・モダニティ・日本
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
At the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver
The history of photography in Japan is coterminous with that of modernity. It was during the Meiji period that photography quickly developed into one of the most important media for artistic expression and documentation in Japan. Since the “visual turn” inspired theoretical debates in the 1990s, scholars in Japanese studies have become increasingly interested in examining photography in their work. Studies in a variety of disciplines have addressed photography’s role in nation- and empire-building, as a vehicle in ideological dissemination, as well as in enabling the development of a language of modernity. Yet as a medium, photography brings with it its own set of questions. What is a photograph, and how does it signify? What is photography’s relationship to modern notions of history? What is the nature of photographic “evidence”? Does a renewed attention to photography as a medium enable a different way to think of modernity? In addressing these questions, this workshop seeks to generate a space for the discussion of methodological questions, the articulation of doubts, and provocations.
Program
11:00 Registration and coffee
11:30 Welcome remarks
Panel 1: Photo Histories
11:45-12:15
National Boundaries and Photographic Frontiers: early Meiji photographs of the Ogasawara Islands
Director of Student Programs & Research Curator of University Collections Initiatives, Harvard Art Museums, USA
12:15-12:45
Private Modernities: The Singleton Family Albums and Early Japanese-Australian Relations
Dr. Luke Gartlan Senior Lecturer, School of Art History, University of St Andrews, Scotland
12:45-13:15 Panel 1 discussion
13:15 Lunch
Panel 2: Photo Practices
14:15 Afternoon registration
14:30-15:00
Surrealism for Photography: Takiguchi Shūzō, Yasui Nakaji and Koishi Kiyoshi before the World War II
Chief curator, Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Japan
15:00-15:30
Window and Hole: 2.5 Dimensional Photography
Photographer and Professor at Tama Art University, Japan
15:30-16:00 Panel 2 discussion
16:00 Break
16:15 Discussion
16:45 Closing remarks
17:00 End
Registration required.
Click here to register for Panel 1
Click here to register for Panel 2
Convenors:
Dr. Ignacio Adriasola, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, UBC
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, Curator, Asia, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
For inquiry, please contact Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura at fuyubi.nakamura@ubc.ca
This event is organized as a part of the Meiji at 150 Project at UBC hosted by Centre for Japanese Research, Departments of History and Asian Studies and the Asian Library, and supported by the Museum of Anthropology.