[KS] Question on colonial photography

[Daniel Corey Kane]

Vol. 1 of the recent series put out by Seoul City Govt, "Seoul Through 
Pictures 1: The Modernization of Seoul and Its Trials(1876~1910)" (The 
City History Compilation Committee of Seoul, 2002) includes a page of 
photographs of women with exposed breasts as part of a larger look at 
traditional dress. I think it was explained that this was a fasion 
privelage only accorded those who had recently given birth. 

Daniel Kane

----- Original Message -----
From: Yong-ho Choe <choeyh at hawaii.edu>
Date: Friday, March 4, 2005 4:53 am
Subject: Re: [KS] Question on colonial photography

> Having grown up in a countryside in Kyongsang Province (near 
> Taegu) in the 30s and 40s, I would say scenes of women's exposed 
> breasts in rural Korea were not unusual, although I cannot say it 
> was common.  I witnessed open breast feedings in public places, 
> such as markets and public gatherings.  I hasten to add that 
> breast-feeding mothers were also quite circumspect as whenever men 
> were present, they would turn their backs.  Women carrying a jar 
> or other things on head (usually middle aged or older) often 
> exposed their breasts.
> 
> 
> At 12:40 AM 3/3/2005, Pai hyungil wrote:
> >Dear members,
> >In my recent research on photography in the early colonial
> >era, I have come across quite a few images of Korean
> >women, such as haenyo (diving women) and country women
> >with exposed breasts. Torii Ryuzo took such photographs in
> >the 1910's and they were included in the history of Korean
> >photographic albums in the 1990's. Today, I also found an
> >illustrated journal dating to 1911, of a Korean market
> >scene in full color with a main figure of a woman walking
> >down the road carrying a water jar with exposed breasts. 
> >A while back when I showed these photographs to my aunties
> >in their 90's (who were kids in the Taisho era), they
> >denied that they ever saw such women walk around like
> >that. Of course, they were raised as urban educated
> >yangban women so they may have missed something.
> >Was this part of the male photographers' fascination with
> >the exotic/erotic female ? I know there are many such
> >photographs over the decades in National Geographic and
> >probably the aesthetic goes back to Gauguin and beyond.
> >However, in Korea's case, is this state of undress such
> >village life (the cropped top is so short, they hang out
> >accidently), or wet nurses advertising their services? Are
> >their missionary accounts of women's clothing in the
> >nineteenth century? And if it was wide-spread, did the
> >custom die down with the Westernization and
> >Christianization? 
> >
> >Hyung Il Pai
> >Japan Foundation Fellow
> >National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Tokyo
> >
> >
> >__________________________________
> >Let's Celebrate Together!
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> 
> Yong-ho Choe, Professor
> Department of History
> University of Hawaii at Manoa
> Honolulu, HI  96822
> 
> Tel: 808 956-6762
> Fax: 808 956-9600
> E-mail: choeyh at hawaii.edu
> 
> 
>