Japan by Kusakabe Kimbei (日下部 金兵衛) (1841 - 1934) Photographer, Honcho-Dori, Yokohama Photography

Japan by Kusakabe Kimbei (日下部 金兵衛) (1841 - 1934) 

Het album bevat een stempel op p. 2: "K. Kimbei, Photo grapher, Honcho-Dori, Yokohama"

Het album bevat een rijk gedeco reerd gelakt houten voor- en achterplat; het is beschilderd en bevat details van ivoor en parelmoer

Kusakabe Kimbei, one of the most accomplished Japanese photographers of his time, operated a studio in Yokohama from the early 1880s until 1913. Kusakabe Kimbei worked with Felice Beato and Baron Raimund von Stillfried as a photographic colourist and assistant before opening his own workshop in Yokohama in 1881 in the Bentendori quarter, and from 1889 operating in the Honmachi quarter. He also opened a branch in the Ginza quarter of Tokyo. As the protégé of von Stillfried, Kusakabe Kimbei continued the tradition of the psychological studio portrait and recorded scenic views of the country while he developed his own Japanese sense of photography. Like postcards today, his work was collected by tourists and exported for sale as curiosities to those who could not visit Japan. He stopped working as a photographer in 1912-1913.

About Mio Wakita

Mio Wakita has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation “’In the guise of elusive veracity’: a visual construct of Meiji femininity in Kusakabe Kimbei’s souvenir photographs in the age of visual modernity,” at the University of Heidelberg in October 2010, and will be joining the Cluster of Excellence as postdoctoral fellow of research project C12 "The Asian Sea" in April 2011. Her doctoral research focused on the analysis of the visual construction of Japanese femininity in the Meiji souvenir photographs by the Japanese photographer Kusakabe Kimbei. Given the transculturality of the souvenir photographs and their semantic ambiguity, she investigated their visual encodings by the Japanese photographer in the context of indigenous visual practices, with special attention to critical issues such as female visibility in the mid- and late Meiji period, social identity of photography models, and visual typologies. She is currently editing her doctoral thesis for publication.

Whereas her doctoral thesis largely concentrated on investigating the visual “encodings” by one specific Japanese studio to reveal one aspect of multi-facetted meaning of souvenir photographic images, the focus of her new research project will lie on “decoding” the meaning of these transcultural image products in the given historical context, stressing the flow of images across the sea. The project investigates how the original signification of Meiji femininity represented in nineteenth-century Japanese souvenir photographs was perceived, manipulated, and embodied by their Western female recipients. The forms of reception by Western women – the target objects of investigation – range from interior decoration, photography albums to sartorial performance before the camera for private photography sessions. The aim of this research project is not only to evaluate the cultural impact of the economic image transactions; it also explores how the images of femininity represented in mid-Meiji souvenir photography transformed the original signification encoded by Japanese photographers when decoded by Western female consumers. In addition, defining Western women as the target group of analysis sheds light on the complexity in the pattern of reception of Japanese souvenir photographs, marking a significant shift from the monolithic “male West vs. female East” model of transcultural relations in understanding cultural consumptions to a more nuanced one. By way of this approach, she aims to elucidate the intricate structure of semantic asymmetry inherent in the transcultural life of the souvenir photographs of Japanese femininity, opening up a wider perspective in the scholarship on the nineteenth century transcultural relationship between Japan and the West.

Her areas of interest include forms of the modernity in Japanese visual culture, construction of Japonisme in the 20th and 21th centuries, and Japanese cultural politics from the 19th century to the present day. 

See also Pioneers of Travel Photography

Egypt by Zangaki, Photog. Artistique G. Lékégian & Co., Abdullah Frères, Antonio Beato and others Photography

Egypt by Zangaki, Photog. Artistique G. Lékégian & Co., Abdullah Frères, Antonio Beato and others

Foto's in het album zijn vervaar digd door: Zangaki, Photog. Artistique G. Lékégian & Co., Abdullah Frères, Antonio Beato, e.a. Het album bevat een papieren stempel op p. 2: "F.W. Rinck, Hof- en Nederlandsche Albumfabrikant, Den Haag"

The Zangaki Brothers (active 1870s-1890s) were two Greek photographers who specialized in historic or ancient Egyptian scenes, producing prints for the tourist trade. They occasionally worked with the Port Said photographer, Hippolyte Arnoux. Little is known about the brothers, except their initials, C. and G., and that they worked out of Port Said and Cairo. Their photographs of late 19th century Egypt, are highly prized by historians and collectors for their insights into life at the time. Images included views of the pyramids (e.g. Cheops or the Sphinx) and the cities (e.g. Suez or Alexandria), as well of Egyptians going about their daily lives (e.g. a teacher and pupils, men by the Nile, or women at home).

G. Lekegian, an Armenian, moved to Cairo from Istabul. He set up a studio in Cairo (1887). Armenians dominated the early photographic industry in Egypt. Few Arabs new anything about photography. Egypt did not have a modern educatioin system and the education that did exist emphasized Islam rather than math and science. Lekegian, rapidly acquired a reputation for the quality of his work. Lekegian ususlly signed his photographs "Photographic Artistique G. Lekegian & Co". This was French based company. He won the Gold Medal at the International Photography Exhibition in Paris in 1892, and the Grand Prize at the International Exhibition in Chicago (1893). His work is an important record of Arab life in Egypt and other North African countries. Some of the best 19th century images of Egypt were produced by Lekegian. His work is found in many major photographic collections. He located his studio, near the legendary Shepheard's Hotel. As his reputsation grew, he turned the area between Qasr al-Nil Street and Opera Square into a golden triangle of Cairo photography. (http://histclo.com/photo/photo/photog/pho-lek.html, 2010-08-23).

Abdullah Frères, three Ottoman Armenian brothers Vichen (1820–1902), Hovsep (1830–1908) and Kevork Abdullah (1839–1918) who ran a profitable studio in Constantinople with other locations in Cairo and Izmir. In 1862 the three brothers were named official royal photographers to the courts of the Sultans Abdul Aziz and Abdul Hamid II, and had the right to use the royal monogram.

While official royal photographers to the Sultans they were commissioned to document the Ottoman Empire in photographs. The work appears to have been conceived by the sultan as a portrait of his empire for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, but was not exhibited there. It dwells on the accomplishments and westernizing improvements of the regime, such as the well drilled and equipped military, the technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades, customs bureaucracy, and life at the lavish Imperial court. A copy of the survey was presented by Sultan Abdul-Hamid to the Library of Congress in 1894. (Gift of H.I.M. the Sultan Abdul Hamid II)

They also sold various views of Egypt and the Middle East to tourists through their studios. In 1899 they sold their business and collection to Sebah and Jollier, which led ultimately to confusion of manufacture from the two studios, since later photographs from Abdullah Frères negatives are embossed with the Sebah and Jollier back stamp.

Antonio Beato was an Italian-British photographer, known for his landscape views of the architecture of Egypt and other locations in the Mediterranean region. He was the younger brother of photographer Felice Beato (1832 - 1909), with whom he sometimes worked.

Antonio Beato's origins are uncertain; he was probably born in Venetian territory and later became a naturalized British citizen. His brother was born in Venice, but the family may have moved to Corfu, which had been a Venetian possession until 1814 when it was acquired by Britain.

Thye large number of photographs signed "Felice Antonio Beato" and "Felice A. Beato", brought to the assumption that there was a photographer who somehow managed to photograph contemporarily in different countries as Egypt and Japan. Later, in 1983 Italo Zannier deducted that "Felice Antonio Beato" represented two brothers, Felice Beato and Antonio Beato, who sometimes worked together, sharing a signature. The confusion arising from the signatures continued to cause problems in identifying which of the two photographers was the creator of a given image.

Antonio often used the French version of his given name, as Antoine Beato. It is presumed that he did so because he mainly worked in Egypt, which had a large French-speaking population.

Antonio Beato went to Cairo in 1860 where he spent two years before moving to Luxor where he opened a photographic studio in 1862 and began producing tourist images of the people and architectural sites of the area. 

In 1864, at a time when his brother Felice was living and photographing in Japan, Antonio photographed members of Ikeda Nagaoki's Japanese mission who were visiting Egypt on their way to France.

Antonio Beato died in Luxor in 1906.

See also Pioneers of Travel Photography

Paris Achille Quinet Photography

Paris Achille Quinet

QUINET, ACHILLE LÉON (1831–1900)
French photographer and studio owner

Born in 1831, Achille Quinet was a successful pho- tographer who operated a studio at 320 rue St Honoré, Paris from about 1869 to 1879. Although Quinet made photographs of the moments and architecture of Paris as well as a series of views of Italy, he is best known for his landscape, animals and figure studies, many of which were made in or around the town of Barbizon and the forest of Fontainebleau. These photographs, which were likely intended as aids to painters, are generally albumen prints mounted on blue card stock, with the stamp “Étude d’Après Nature’ as well as a red rubber stamp of his name. Some images are mounted on white stock with the blind stamp “A le. Quinet fils.”

A member of the Sociéte Française de Photographie from 1876 to 1894, Quinet exhibited his work at the universal exhibition of 1878. Most of Quinet’s work is housed at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, where he deposited his Etudes at the Depôt Légal in 1868, 1875, and 1877. Quinet’s work is occasionally confused with that of his contemporary, Constant-Alexandre Famin. While the pair made photographs with similar subject matter, general stylistic differences distinguish the two. It is possible that Quinet, acting as a publisher or dis- tributor, placed his own stamp on works made by Famin. After 1879, Quinet moved to Cély, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where he died in 1900.

See also Pioneers of Travel Photography