Shashin

In the mid nineteenth century a distinctive style of photography developed in Japan. Shashin (Japanese for ‘photography’) features delicately hand-coloured photographs posed in the studio. The exhibition is the first in Australia to explore this remarkable period in photography where Western and Japanese photographers followed the conventions and subject matter of the famed ukiyo-e woodblock prints to show courtesans, actors and scenes of entertainment. It was a time when photography gave realism to genre studies while helping create stylised depictions of a traditional lifestyle that, in many cases, were becoming increasingly rare.