“History of Japanese Photography”

This exhibition is the first comprehensive account of Japanese photography from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

Assembled by a team of distinguished Japanese and Western scholars, this groundbreaking exhibition establishes that photography began to play a vital role in Japanese culture soon after its introduction to Japan in the 1850s. The exhibition explores the medium’s evolution and aesthetic shifts in relation to Japan’s historical and cultural developments; the interaction of Japanese photographers with Western photographers; the link between photography and other Japanese art forms; and photography as a record and catalyst of change.

The first Western survey of this rich and challenging history comprises more than 200 photographs, books, and magazines made between 1854 and 1998. Accompanying the exhibition is a groundbreaking catalogue copublished by the MFAH and Yale University Press.

On view through April 27, 2003 at the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas, USA).

http://www.mfah.org/main.asp?target=exhibition&par1=1&par2=1&par3=99

You can buy the exhibition catalog at Amazon.com. ISBN 0300099258