Fotoalbum met 162 foto's van Japan, samengesteld door Gijs Bosch Reitz 1890 - 1903

Curator: What we have here is an album assembled by Gijs Bosch Reitz between 1890 and 1903, containing 162 photographs of Japan. These albumen prints offer a glimpse into a society undergoing rapid transformation during the Meiji era. Editor: It appears quite unassuming at first glance – almost drab, in a way. The muted tones of the cover, its rough texture… it speaks to a past almost lost to time, hidden within those pages. Curator: Exactly! This album operates as a visual archive, contributing to a broader historical discourse surrounding the concept of "japonisme." It raises crucial questions about orientalism, power dynamics, and cultural exchange during that time. What narratives are being constructed, and whose perspectives are centered? Editor: Indeed. Photographs as symbols—a potent form of capturing and also framing reality. I wonder what kind of conscious decisions went into the arrangement of these 162 images. What underlying themes connect the pictures and what cultural assumptions shaped those connections? Curator: Precisely, it forces us to consider how identity and the perception of the “Other” were actively shaped and circulated through visual media. Photography, in this context, becomes an act laden with political significance. The photographers are participating in global circuits of capital and ideas. Editor: It makes me wonder, too, about the Japanese response. Were they equally capturing the West with their own evolving technologies? This album stands as a potent emblem for the relationship of power as embodied by the visual symbols contained. I wonder how Reitz interpreted all the symbols from his pictures... Curator: Well said. Understanding those global networks of visual culture is crucial to understanding our present, so different and yet built on all of that. Editor: For me, the album as an object creates an impression on many different symbolic levels. It offers itself up as a microcosm of shifting international relations at that period. A symbol worthy of scrutiny.