Synopses & Reviews
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 andldquo;the shock and sense of utter improbability that accompanied the new technologyandrdquo; 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
Review
andldquo;Through its andlsquo;radical attention to the unexpected,andrsquo; this bold and provocative collection asks vital questions about the disturbance created by photography. The sweep and intensity of this stellar ensemble make an essential contribution to our understanding of the photographic world-system.andrdquo;andmdash;Christopher Pinney, author of Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs
Review
andldquo;Photographies East is remarkable in many ways. As the first systematic consideration of photography in East and Southeast Asia, it offers some of the most acute reflections on the different workings and effects of photography in non-Western contexts. It will also stir fresh thinking about the relationship between history and anthropology in the wake of the camera.andrdquo;andmdash;Vicente L. Rafael, author of The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines
Review
andldquo;Highly recommended.andrdquo; - P. C. Bunnell, Choice
Review
andldquo;Photographies East is a brilliant and densely written elaboration of the potency of photographs in a range of cultural contexts and historical settings. This outstanding book illustrates that there is much more and new to be said about the entanglement of the camera and photographs with a history of ruptures. Its significance stems less from the regional focus than from the way in which highly sensitive narrations of empirical detail are used to address broad questions of photography, power and modernity.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;I found Photographies East to be a gripping, marvelously varied, trawl through the photographic worlds of East and Southeast Asia. Like photographs, the material contained in this volume will undoubtedly exceed its initial essay-frames, and stimulate interest and debate for years to come.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Photographies East provides an engaging and often provocative collection of nine essays, marked by their theoretical and analytical rigour, which examine the diverse social and historical applications of photography in various regional contexts in Indonesia, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Japan. . . . [T]his volume is an essential contribution to an ever-expanding field of investigation. . . . Photographies East is a compelling and thought-provoking volume of detailed case studies, which succeeds in its multidisciplinary aims to further the critical debate on photographyandrsquo;s histories and legacies in Southeast and East Asia. With its astute and wide-ranging use of theoretical and empirical approaches to materials on the periphery of academic attention, it will help foster dialogues between visual anthropologists, cultural historians, area specialists, and historians of photography both in local and transnational contexts, inside and outside Asia.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[T]his is a stimulating and cogent addition to the growing body of studies of photography in historical contexts. This volume should help erode any lingering notions that universalizing statements by some professional photographers are sufficient for understanding the multitude of meanings generated by the practices, images and readings in specific settings. . . . [T]he wealth of ideas contained in this collection of articles will stimulate the exploration of new directions in the study of photography.andrdquo; - Hyung-Gu Lynn, Pacific Affairs
Review
andldquo;[T]his is without question an important collection that greatly expands our knowledge about the history of photography and photographic practice in Asia. This book will surely inspire valuable new projects in the years to come.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Highly recommended.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Collection of essays on the history of photography in Southeast Asia and East Asia that emphasize the ethnographic uses of the medium.
Synopsis
Scholars of Asia, most of whom are anthropologists, examine the transformations precipitated or accelerated by the spread of photography across East and Southeast Asia.
Synopsis
For more than three decades, artist William Kentridge has explored in his work the nature of subjectivity, the possibilities of revolution, the Enlightenment’s legacy in Africa, and the nature of time itself. At the same time, his creative work has stretched the boundaries of the very media he employs. Though his pieces have allowed viewers to encounter the traditions of landscape and self-portraiture, the limits of representation and the possibilities for animated drawing, and the labor of art, a guide to understanding the full scope of his art has been available until now.
For five days, Kentridge sat with Rosalind C. Morris to talk about his work. The result—That Which Is Not Drawn—is a wide-ranging conversation and deep investigation into the artist’s techniques and into the psychic and philosophical underpinnings of his body of work. In these pages, Kentridge explains the key concerns of his art, including the virtues of bastardy, the ethics of provisionality, the nature of translation and the activity of the viewer. And together, Kentridge and Morris trace the migration of images across his works and consider the possibilities for a revolutionary art that remains committed to its own transformation.
“That’s the thing about a conversation,” Kentridge reflects. “The activity and the performance, whether it’s the performance of drawing or the performance of speech and conversation, is also the engine for new thoughts to happen. It’s not just a report of something you know.” And here, in this engaging dialogue, we at last have a guide to the continually exciting, continually changing work of one of our greatest living artists.
About the Author
William Kentridge is known for his animated films, charcoal drawings, prints, books, collage, sculpture, and for his work in the performing arts. In the past two years, his work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Opera and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, La Scala in Milan, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, among others. Rosalind C. Morris is professor of anthropology and former associate director of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. She is also the author of New Worlds from Fragments: Film, Ethnography, and the Representation of Northwest Coast Cultures and In the Place of Origins: Modernity and Its Mediums in Northern Thailand.
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: Naitand#333; Masatoshi's Flash / Marilyn Ivy 229
Cine-Photography as Racial Technology: Tanizaki Jun'ichirand#333;'s Close-up on the New/Oriental Woman's Face / Thomas LaMarre 259
Bibliography 291
Contributors 305
Index 307