[KS] Question on colonial photography

[Pai hyungil]

Dear Mr. Burgeson and members,
I have also seen such photos taken by Western commercial
photographers who resided in the foreign port cities in
Japan. They were taken in Bakumatsu period and they were
included in a catalogue from the Peabody Museum at Harvard
University in the mid 1980's.
I did go to see this exhibition when I was a student but
thought they were considered "artistic" photos but not
pornorgraphic. Young women are usually showed in various
states of undress either lounging around or in front of
the cosmetic mirror. I believe at this period it is 
probably a fine-line between art and pornography. 
But I agree with you there must have been a market for
these images because it is obvious they were carefully
staged and some are even colored at commercial photo
studios. The fact that the Peabody Museum at Salem and
Harvard own the collections now is indication that they
were acquired during part of the international
import/export trading network with the port of Boston port
and the Far East.
 When I get back to the U.S.  I will look at this
catalogue again but I do not believe there was anything in
the text by the authors about women's bodies and colonial
desire or gaze. I guess this exhibition happened before
the proliferation of cultural studies perspectives. 

--- "J.Scott Burgeson" <jsburgeson at yahoo.com> からのメッ
セージ：
> 
> --- Pai hyungil <hyungpai at yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
> 
> > 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. 
> > Was this part of the male photographers'
> fascination
> > with the exotic/erotic female? 
> 
> 
> Apparently an underground photographic pornography
> market also existed in Korea since at least late
> Choson/late 19th century. Although I have not seen
> such images myself as they are extremeley rare,
> collectors describe intentionally sexualized images
> of
> topless Korean women (i.e., exposed breasts but not
> genitalia) posing seated in interior spaces
> alongside
> Korean men. It is probable that these images were
> taken by visiting Japanese photographers aiming for
> a
> Japanese or foreign market. Such images are clearly
> different from those everyday life portraits
> described
> above, and were no doubt meant for purposes of
> "erotic" arousal...
>  --Scott Bug 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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