Courtesy of the AGA

Tattoo You | This hand-coloured photograph, “Groom,” is attributed to Adolfo Farsari.

DETAILS

KOSHASHIN: The Hall Collection of 19th Century Photographs of Japan
Art Gallery of Alberta
Monday, April 6 - Sunday, June 7

More in: Exhibits

This week brings Jill and Mandy back to Ye Olde AGA for a megadose of historical Japanese photography, fresh from the second half of the 19th century (and the impressive private collection of Edmontonian Arlene Hall).

Jill: The first impression you get when you walk into this gallery is “Wow ... there are a whole lot of photographs in here.” And if I were standing next to you, I’d say, “You’re right — more than 250, in fact.” It’s a lot to take in on just one visit.

Mandy: So very many photographs. And they all have that very specific hand-tinted look and colour quality. Koshashin is the title of this exhibition, which the AGA summary tells me translates as “period photographs.” Which really is what this show is. It’s a very beautiful and educational display of a time and place that most of us will not have experienced before.

Jill: Absolutely. There’s a good mix of portraiture and landscape photography that really epitomizes 19th-century Japanese culture, at least to our western eyes. However, the exhibition notes that these images were in fact mostly staged, particularly the portrait-based photographs. I thought it was interesting and humorous that in order to create these narrative scenes, which seem so spontaneous and humble (especially the portraits of the working class in their environments), the limitations of the camera equipment mean the subjects had to freeze their poses for anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes.

Mandy: Also, many of the photographers hired female prostitutes to portray domestic situations of “everyday” life that would have been completely unrelated to those women’s actual experiences. For a medium that seems like the epitome of unimpeachable, documentary-like historical realism, there’s a huge element of performance and artifice in these images. I appreciate that this show makes a point of acknowledging that kind of ridiculous element.

Jill: Exactly. The exhibit does a pretty good job of giving you interesting, strategically placed information about the photographs, so that you can digest them in groups as you make your way through the gallery. Otherwise, I think the show would have been completely overwhelming — you wouldn’t even be able to really look at all the photos singularly. But the AGA has divided them up in such a way that you can give most of them your attention.

Mandy: That layout is most definitely significant to the overall effect. Even so, I was incapable of appreciating each photo. In a way, it’s a similar experience to Attila Richard Lukacs’ Polaroids exhibition on the other end of the gallery — it can really be daunting to approach a full wall coated with all these individual images. Some of them catch your attention and hold your interest, but others barely register. Maybe this is the kind of show that demands multiple visits.

Jill: Yes, yes. Though I’m not sure how you’d fix that effect without some serious editing. I know it’s impressive to collect more than 250 photographs of this nature and squish them all into the gallery space, but it wound up hindering our ability to really look at them. I came to the gallery with the explicit purpose of looking at them with the intention of writing about this show; however, upon realizing just how many photographs there were, the task grows to hours and hours of your time. Some judicious editing would have made it much easier for me to pick out favourites.

Mandy: My favourite aspect of the show was, absurdly, not even about the work, but more about an element of presentation. Those rotating frames for displaying double-mounted images killed me. Also, the signage that instructs you to push gently.... I kind of couldn’t handle how endearing that was. Plus, they added an interactive element, which keeps things from becoming too dry, if you know what I mean.

Jill: I do know what you mean! But although I liked those funny rotating frames, I was kind of confused about the relationships between the photos they grouped together.

Mandy: I think the photos themselves were attached — the rotating frames were a necessary innovation. From the future.

Koshashin will be on exhibit at the Art Gallery of Alberta until June 7.