Photographies East

Rosalind C. Morris is Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. She is the author of In the Place of Origins: Modernity and Its Mediums in Northern Thailand, also published by Duke University Press, and New Worlds from Fragments: Film, Ethnography, and the Representation of Northwest Coast Culture.

“Highly recommended.” - P. C. Bunnell, Choice “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.” - Ursula Rao, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology “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.” - Liana Chua, Anthropological Forum “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 photography’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.” - Luke Gartlan, History of Photography “[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.” - Hyung-Gu Lynn, Pacific Affairs “[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.” - David Odo, International Journal of Asian Studies “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.”-Vicente L. Rafael, author of The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines “Through its ‘radical attention to the unexpected,’ 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.”-Christopher Pinney, author of Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs “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.” - Ursula Rao (The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology) “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 photography’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.” - Luke Gartlan (History of Photography) “[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.” - David Odo (International Journal of Asian Studies) “Highly recommended.” - P. C. Bunnell (Choice) “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.” - Liana Chua (Anthropological Forum)

• Introduction. Photographies East: The Camera and Its Histories in East and Southeast Asia / Rosalind C. Morris 1The Ghost in the Machine / John Pemberton 29The Curse of the Photograph: Atjeh 1901 / James T. Siegel 57The Photography Complex: Exposing Boxer-Era China (1900-1901), Making Civilization / James L. Hevia 79Photography and the Power of Images in the History of Power: Notes from Thailand / Rosalind C. Morris 121In and Out of the Picture: Photography, Ritual, and Modernity in Aru, Indonesia / Patricia Spyer 161Mysterious Photographs / Nickola Pazderic 183Abandoned Cities Seen Anew: Reflections on Spatial Specificity and Temporal Transience / Carlos Rojas 207Dark Enlightenment: Naitō Masatoshi's Flash / Marilyn Ivy 229Cine-Photography as Racial Technology: Tanizaki Jun'ichirō's Close-up on the New/Oriental Woman's Face / Thomas LaMarre 259Bibliography 291Contributors 305Index 307