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A RICE HARVESTER OF LUZON in the PHILIPPINES
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Rob
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A JAPANESE ACROBATIC TROOP -- Young Kids Entertain on the Streets of Old Japan
| A JAPANESE ACROBATIC TROOP -- Young Kids Entertain on the Streets of Old Japan |
| Description: |
These ca.1870-72 stereoviews are from a rare series of photographs that originally appeared as 2-D half-stereoviews in the THE FAR EAST -- an early Meiji-era journal published by foreigners in Yokohama.
The following copyright material was written by your's truly in 2005 for publication in 2006, as an entry for the INDEX OF JAPAN-RELATED STEREOVIEW PHOTOGRAPHERS AND PUBLISHERS. This index formed a part of Terry Bennett's OLD JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS - COLLECTORS' DATA GUIDE (Quaritch. London, 2006) seen here : www.old-japan.co.uk/book_ojp.html
THE FAR EAST (Yokohama. Stereoview images matching illustrations in the 1870–1872 issues) An early English language publication, The Far East was founded in 1870 by John Reddie Black, a Scot who had his hand in at least four competing early newspapers. More of a journal than a newspaper, this Yokohama publication departed from the typical English language newspapers of the time by running lighter fare – including stories translated from the Japanese – as well as its remarkable use of tipped-in real photos for illustrations. Not surprisingly, it turns out that our Mr. Black was also very good amateur photographer, and was himself one of the staff photographers of his own paper!
As stereoviews never appeared as such in the history of this publication, I had always assumed that the source of the photographs was entirely from standard cameras and flat print negatives. My assumption was proven wrong when Terry Bennett identified two [and later, even more] stereoview images in my collection as being the same images that appeared in The Far East as half-stereoview enlargements.
That this historical publication relied even in part on the work of one or more stereographers was a revelation. I examined a published list of images used for The Far East that was given in the 1994 Nagasaki University publication Ko Shashin Kenkyu [Old Photography Study], and discovered other titles that matched some of the stereoviews I had.
So, was it publisher/photographer John Black who took these images with a stereo camera? Concerning the images so far identified as having come from stereoviews, Bennett remarks, ".....Unfortunately, the photographer is not attributed. When this happens in pre-1873 issues there is a strong possibility that the photographer was MICHAEL MOSER, or even John Black himself. However, in the case the view showing the Townsend Harris residence in Shimoda, we do know that it was taken by Michael MOSER......."
MICHAEL MOSER ? He is a young man about whom little is known. Moser originally came to Japan as a teenage assistant to photographer William Burger. It turns out that after Burger left Japan, Moser stuck around, with Black eventually hiring him as his own young assistant photographer. Black occasionally sent Moser out to photograph “CHARACTER STUDIES” for the paper, and that is just what many of these stereoviews turn out to be.
Although none of these stereoviews are found with imprints, I think it best to refer to them as THE FAR EAST SERIES OF JAPAN STEREOVIEWS, with photographer attribution for the many good character studies, group shots, and people views going to our young MICHAEL MOSER.
For more on Moser, see Terry Bennett's comprehensive PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN, 1853-1921 (Tuttle, 2006) : www.old-japan.co.uk/book_pij.html |
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| Date: |
09.11.2008 01:14 |
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Rob |
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