Photographies East : the camera and its histories in East and Southeast Asia
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Photographies East : the camera and its histories in East and Southeast Asia
(Objects/histories)
Duke University Press, 2009
- : pbk
- : cloth
Available at 7 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-304) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Introducing Photographies East, Rosalind C. Morris notes that although the camera is now a taken-for-granted element of everyday life in most parts of the world, it is difficult to appreciate "the shock and sense of utter improbability that accompanied the new technology" as it was introduced in Asia (and elsewhere). In this collection, scholars of Asia, most of whom are anthropologists, describe frequent attribution of spectral powers to the camera, first brought to Asia by colonialists, as they examine the transformations precipitated or accelerated by the spread of photography across East and Southeast Asia. In essays resonating across theoretical, historical, and geopolitical lines, they engage with photography in China, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand, and on the islands of Aru, Aceh, and Java in what is now Indonesia. The contributors analyze how in specific cultural and historical contexts, the camera has affected experiences of time and subjectivity, practices of ritual and tradition, and understandings of death. They highlight the links between photography and power, looking at how the camera has figured in the operations of colonialism, the development of nationalism, the transformation of monarchy, and the militarization of violence. Moving beyond a consideration of historical function or effect, the contributors also explore the forms of illumination and revelation for which the camera has offered itself as instrument and symbol. And they trace the emergent forms of alienation and spectralization, as well as the new kinds of fetishism, that photography has brought in its wake. Taken together, the essays chart a bravely interdisciplinary path to visual studies, one that places the particular knowledge of a historicized anthropology in a comparative frame and in conversation with aesthetics and art history.
Contributors. James L. Hevia, Marilyn Ivy, Thomas LaMarre, Rosalind C. Morris, Nickola Pazderic, John Pemberton, Carlos Rojas, James T. Siegel, Patricia Spyer
Table of Contents
Introduction. Photographies East: The Camera and Its Histories in East and Southeast Asia / Rosalind C. Morris 1
The Ghost in the Machine / John Pemberton 29
The Curse of the Photograph: Atjeh 1901 / James T. Siegel 57
The Photography Complex: Exposing Boxer-Era China (1900-1901), Making Civilization / James L. Hevia 79
Photography and the Power of Images in the History of Power: Notes from Thailand / Rosalind C. Morris 121
In and Out of the Picture: Photography, Ritual, and Modernity in Aru, Indonesia / Patricia Spyer 161
Mysterious Photographs / Nickola Pazderic 183
Abandoned Cities Seen Anew: Reflections on Spatial Specificity and Temporal Transience / Carlos Rojas 207
Dark Enlightenment: Naito Masatoshi's Flash / Marilyn Ivy 229
Cine-Photography as Racial Technology: Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's Close-up on the New/Oriental Woman's Face / Thomas LaMarre 259
Bibliography 291
Contributors 305
Index 307
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