ABBAS: 45 Years in Photography. Singapore: National Museum of Singapore, 2011. [38 p.]. Exhibition catalog of a retrospective of the work of the Iranian-born photographer, Abbas, on view 18 June to 18 September 2011. Abbas is a member of the Magnum photo agency, of which he was president from 1998 to 2001. Includes a glossary and a bibliography.
Jungjin Lee, Wind. New York: Sepia: Aperture, c2009. 1 vol., unpaged. ISBN 9781597111287. Preface by Vicki Goldberg; essay by Eugenia Parry. Basis of a 2010 exhibition at the Aperture Gallery and Bookstore in New York, March 25-14 April 2011.
Wei-Cheng Lin, “Preserving China: Liang Sicheng’s Survey Photos from the 1930s and 1940s,” Visual Resources, vol. 27, issue 2 (2011), 129-145. Publisher’s abstract: “In an endeavor to write a history of traditional Chinese architecture during the 1930s–1940s, Liang Sicheng (1901–1972) employed photography as the primary method of visual documentation because of its alleged ability to represent reality objectively. This article reexamines Liang’s survey photographs in light of the different interests in China’s cultural past taken by the state and foreign powers. In particular, by comparing photographs taken by Japanese architectural historians, whose research in China informed and justified Japan’s intention to construct a Japan‐centered Pan‐Asianism, I argue that Liang’s images of ancient buildings not only helped define China’s cultural heritage, but also evoked a nostalgic view of the past—a vision, to Liang, to be the only means of preserving China’s architectural tradition during the most tumultuous years in modern China.”
Korea: As Seen by Magnum Photographers. New York W. W. Norton & Co., 2009. 303 p. ISBN 9780393067743. Introduction by Bruce Cumings. Full- and half-page colored photographs are supplemented by black & white thumbnails with annotation.
Karen M. Fraser, Photography and Japan. London: Reaktion Books, 2011. 170 pp. ISBN 9781861897978.
Dana Buntrock, “Review Essay: Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s Photographs of Katsura Imperial Retreat,” Visual Resources, vol. 2, issue 2 (2011), 185-190. The author is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in Japanese architecture.
Eleanor M. Hight, Capturing Japan in Nineteenth-century New England Photography Collections. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. ISBN 9781409404989. “...focuses on six New Englanders, whose travel and photograph collecting influenced the flowering of Japonism in late nineteenth-century Boston. The book also explores the history of Japanese photography and its main themes [source: note from publisher].”
Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China: Western Photographers, 1861-1879. London : Quaritch, 2010. xii, 419 p. ISBN 9780956301215. The second of the author’s books on the history of photography in China.
Miryam Sas, Experimental Arts in Postwar Japan: Moments of Encounter, Engagement, and Imagined Return. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center; dist. by Harvard University Press, 2011. 275 p. ISBN 9780674053403. Chapter 8 covers “The Provoke Era: New Languages of Japanese Photography.” From that chapter: “This chapter considers key moments in the writings and visual works of the ‘golden age’ of Japanese photography that has come to be known in critical writings as the Provoke Era.”
Stéphanie Roy Bharath, “John Edward Saché in India,”History of Photography, vol. 35, no. 2 (180-192). Publisher’s abstract: “Although many in the field of Indian photography are aware of the photographs John Edward Saché produced in India, little has been written about his career. Almost nothing was known about this practitioner, whose biographical details were confused with various firms – Saché & Westfield, Saché & Murray, Saché & Lawrie and Saché & Co. – and with various other names – J. Saché and A. Saché – appearing on photographs or in trade directories. Saché followed the steps of the well-known English photographer Samuel Bourne, who had set up a paradigm for composing landscape and architectural views, in which the picturesque vocabulary dominated. A master of the Picturesque, Saché excelled in this style, offering astonishing views that have often been attributed to Bourne. This essay will present the photographic career of Saché and compare the work of both practitioners in order to delineate the extents to which Saché reproduced Bourne's formula.”
Rixt A. Bosma, Photography Meets Film: Capa, Ivens and Fernhout in China, 1938. (Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography, vol. 8). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2011. 56 p. ISBN 9789071450310. Translated from the Dutch original by Karen Gamester. “Previously unknown photos taken by photographer Robert Capa in 1938 in China will be revealed for the first time in a photobook that is being published as part of the Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography series. Many previously unpublished photos provide more details of the journey that Capa made through China with Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens and cameraman John Fernhout. Photo historian Rixt Bosma (1979) uncovered the photos while researching the journey that Robert Capa (1913-1954) made through China, which at that time was at war with Japan. It turned out that Dutch museums and archives were in possession of many photos, production stills and photo albums, some of which were previously unknown and unpublished, including thirty photos that were part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection. They literally give the viewer a ‘behind the scenes look’ at how war reporting - and filmmaking - were practised in those days. Amongst other insights, the photos provide information on the presence of the Chinese authorities (censorship) and about the other Western journalists and photographers that Capa, Ivens and Fernhout met while in China.” (source: www.rixtbosma.nl/book.php)
Moriguchi Katsu 森口豁, Moriguchi Katsu shashinshū : sayonara Amerika森口豁写真集 : さよならアメリカ. Tōkyō : Miraisha 未来社, 2010. ISBN 9784624900274
Sara Stevenson, “The Empire Looks Back: Subverting the Imperial Gaze,”History of Photography, vol. 35, no. 2 (2011), 142-156. Publisher’s abstract: “This paper looks at visual encounters between west and east, in the context of the north-eastern province[s] of China, specifically Weihaiwei and Qufu, in the early years of the twentieth century. It focuses on the British Commissioner for Weihaiwei, James Haldane Stewart Lockhart, and his subordinate, Reginald Johnston, and their relations with key figures, the Governors of Shandong and Duke Kong. This relationship is approached through the formal photographs, taken by a Chinese photographer, here partially identified as ‘Ah Fong’. These successful photographs are compared with a later, commissioned plan to photograph the whole British Empire, undertaken by Alfred Hugh Fisher.”
Philip Charrier, “The making of a Hunter: Moriyama Daido 1966-1972,”History of Photography, vol. 34, no. 3 (2010), 268-290. Publisher’s abstract: “The images from Moriyama's earliest photobooks – Nihon gekijō shashinchō (Nippon Theatre), Shashin yo sayōnara (Farewell Photography), and Kariudo (A Hunter) – are among his most highly respected works, yet comparably little is known about the processes and contexts of their production. This essay examines the photographer's early collaborative projects with the writer and dramatist Terayama Shūji, as well as such important magazine serial projects as ‘Akushidento (Accident)’ and ‘Nanika eno tabi (Searching Journeys)’, with a view to better understanding his formative years. The analysis draws heavily from the notes that Moriyama often wrote to accompany his photo-stories and argues that his most important thematic terrain is the often unsettling tension between two modalities of the photograph: on the one hand as ‘cold’, ‘authentic’ documentary record, and on the other as emotionally affecting simulation of meaningful contact with the external world.”
Abbas, Les Enfants du Lotus: Voyage chez les bouddhistes. Paris: Editions de La Martinière, 2011. 288 p. Photographs of children of Cambodia and other Buddhist communities. ISBN 978-2732444642
The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology. Ed. by Sudeshna Guha. New Delhi: Mapin: Alkazi Collection of Photography; Ocean Township, NJ: Grantha, 2010. 288 p. ISBN 9788189995324. Contributions by Michael Dodson, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Robert Harding, Christopher Pinney, B. D. Chattopadhyaya, and Sudeshna Guha. Publisher’s blurb: “Drawing on the photographic albums in the personal collection of Sir John Marshall, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902-1928, this volume is a study exploring multiple perceptions of Indian history and related scholarship produced through archaeological fieldwork during the colonial period.
While maintaining focus on Marshall's contributions to South Asian archaeology, the themes of the essays include the rise of archaeology as an authoritative element for historical scholarship during the 18th and 19th centuries, the preservation of monuments and historical landscapes, and the complex relationships between photography and archaeology. The book highlights major sites such as Sanchi, Sarnath, Mohenjodaro and Taxila - often referred to as Marshall's archaeological triumphs.”
With over 100 illustrations and an extensive bibliography, this volume offers a detailed account of the investigative technique that developed into a commanding disciplinary science - archaeology - within British India.”
Ooi Cheng Ghee, Portraits of Penang: Little India. Texts by Gareth Richards and Himanshu Bhattt. Penang: Areca Books, 2011. 160 images. ISBN 978-967-5719-050-9. “In 1979 Ooi Cheng Ghee spent a year exploring the streets of Little India, Penang with a particular way of seeing and his trusted Leica camera. It was not only a journey of discovery but a kind a conversation with the diverse community that inhabited the enclave. Juxtaposing people and streetscapes, his images capture the essence and dynamism of a singular place.” (source: publisher’s blurb)
