Felice Beato's Japan: Places

Four Chapters

1.  Give three important things (concepts, ideas, etc.)  that you take away from the essay.  These are things that should be helpful as you continue to think about the visual culture of Japan and what can be called "the politics of representation," which has to do with how such things as myth and ideology and codes appear in images and their captions. 

The essay mentions right off the bat that while the images Beato had taken were of Japan, they were conceptualized in a very western manner. Beato was highly influential and successful when it came to photography, and eventually came to develop his "Views of Japan" albums for sale. These albums contained captions next to each photo, including information on the history shown in the photo and cultural interpretation of whatever was going on. This must have served an extremely important purpose in educating the westerners who invested in the photos on Japanese life and customs in a very subtle way. They bought the images because they thought they were beautiful, but then also inadvertently came to learn about that beauty's origins and meaning.

Beato's photography brings attention to the scenic views in Japanese life--not only does it depict nature on its own, but it shows people existing within that same space going about their lives. Nature in these images is not untouched and free as it is often depicted in the west, but inhabited seamlessly. The beauty of Japan is depicted by its intimate relationship with the world around its inhabitants. It speaks volumes about the values of its people and how they choose to live their lives. The photographer paints Japan as the perfect beautiful and exotic place westerners want to see. By focusing on this, Beato has a poignant selling point in all his albums which is why he ends up being so successful.

The subjects of all the photos were places of interest for the westerners. This is an important point in that people already want to visit and know more about these places--they find them interesting and want to see them for themselves. The combination of the images capturing the everyday lives of the Japanese people alongside captions that explained everything clearly served to help assimilate westerners into the Japanese culture.

2.  Upload the two images that you have chosen to your personal blog.  Give your analysis of the image, and your "critical analysis" of the captions.  Be on the lookout for any language or ideas in the concepts that may seem to represent myths, ideological prejudices, or coded language (sort of like the "dog whistles" of contemporary politics).

14.) The caption for this photo begins by explaining who the statue represents and what they are attributed to. The various features of the statue, from its bald head to the stone trough before it is explained plainly. The method of prayer is also explained, letting readers know how to, if they ever visit the statue for themselves, properly go about interacting with it in a respectful way according to tradition. The importance of these captions is incredible--what seems like a simple interesting tidbit actually opens a window into Japanese culture and their way of life. Things like washing hands to purify ones self before the gods, bowing ones head out of respect are discussed; the photo albums represent a journey, and the captions tell you how to navigate it.

49.) This next photo describes less the Japanese way of life and more how life is built. Different from western style homes and structures, the caption explains the Japanese style of architecture was designed keeping the frequent earthquakes that occur in mind. The photo provides a lens into the basic standard in place for Buddhist temples all throughout Japan, going so far as to state that all the temples look essentially the same.