Gezicht op een baai te Japan before 1892

This is William Kinnimond Burton’s "Gezicht op een baai te Japan," a photograph printed in a book. Burton, a Scottish engineer and photographer, took this image while working as a professor in Japan during the late 19th century. His work offers us a lens through which to consider the cross-cultural exchanges and power dynamics inherent in that era. The photograph itself, a serene bay, is juxtaposed with text in the book. A poem and an analysis of that poem. How do we reconcile Burton's gaze, as a Westerner in Japan, with the emotional content he attributes to the landscape? Does the artist’s soul truly approve of the cunning of his hand? The sentimentality of the text and the cool, almost clinical, nature of the photograph invite us to reflect on how cultural context shapes our understanding of place and emotion.