On the 26th of August in the Estate of V.P.Sukachev ) 112 December Events Street) the exhibition "Old Japanese Photography" from the collection of the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, begins. The exhibition contains about 100 colored photographs of the Meiji era (1868-1912). This collection can rightfully be called one of the largest in Europe.

Colorized photography is a special phenomenon that stands at the intersection of several traditions: European photography and Japanese traditional art. Photography came to Japan from the West as early as the 1840s, but early attempts at light painting in the 1850s, undertaken by visitors and local enthusiasts, were sporadic and inconsistent. The heyday of the art of photography in Japan came in the last quarter of the 19th century. It was identified by Western masters, who later had Japanese students and followers.

According to researchers, in the second half of the 19th century, more than 200 thousand photographs of Japan were created, forming a kind of encyclopedia of images. This fact suggests that the demand for colored photography was so high that it spawned a whole developed industry and serious business.

The photographs presented at the exhibition were made using the albumin printing technique, which inexorably fades away from contact with sunlight. The photographs were often not fully colored to create visual accents.

At the exhibition, staged shots taken on the streets with extras and mise-en-scenes, completely constructed in the airless space of a photographic studio, where everyday life turns into an exotic ritual, and collective and typical images of geisha and samurai are portrayed by disguised actors, side by side with the exhibition.

The exhibition "Old Japanese Photography" will be open at the V.P.Sukachev Estate (112 December Events Street) until October 3. For inquiries by phone: 53-12-24. We remind you of the need to observe the mask regime and social distance when visiting the museum.

Exhibition "Old Japanese Photography" Automatic translate

Усадьба В.П. Сукачева