Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the history of Japanese Photography

This website is a teaching and research resource made up of modules that each include:

1) a short (20-30 minute) lecture covering a focused topic in 19th-21st century Japanese photography from a gender studies perspective
2) a digitized archive of related photographs
3) an annotated bibliography (all in English and Japanese).

The website also includes a database of digitized historical Japanese photographs and an interactive timeline of women in Japanese photography, which will hope will contribute to further research in the field. Each module is applicable to a range of university courses covering art history, culture, and gender and media studies. The interactive timeline of the most extensive collection of bibliographical data on women photographers in Japan is a jumping off point to learn more about women photographers in Japan and their work.

New modules include:

·  Philip Charrier (University of Regina), “Women, Children, and Gochō Shigeo’s Radical Every day, 1968-69・女性、子供たち、牛腸茂雄の過激なる日常”

·  In Conversation: “Aileen Mioko Smith and Namiko Kunimoto (Ohio State University) on Photographs of Minamata・対談：アイリーン・美緒子・スミスと奈美子国許　「水俣」の写真”

·  In Conversation: Nagashima Yurie (photographer) and Handa Yuri (Columbia University) “Reflections on Feminists Discourses in Japanese Photography・対談：長島有里枝・半田ゆり 日本の写真におけるフェミニスト言説についての考察”

·  Kohara Masashi, (Tokyo Polytechnic University Faculty of Arts) “A Photographic History of the Image of the Emperor・天皇のイメージの写真史”

·  Toda Masako (Independent scholar), “Hisae Imai’s Postwar Photography ・今井寿恵の戦後写真”

·  Kerry Ross (De Paul University), “Marketing, Gender, and Photo Aesthetics in Early 20th-Century Japan・20世紀初頭の日本におけるマーケティング、ジェンダー、写真美学”

·  Ayelet Zohar (Tel Aviv University), “Ishikawa Mao's The Great Ryūkyū Photographic Scroll Between History and Memory・石川真生「大琉球写真絵巻」歴史と記憶の間で”

We are extremely grateful to all contributors and we hope you will have the chance to explore it and perhaps utilize it in your courses or to learn more about Japanese photography.

Contributed by Kelly McCormick and Carrie Cushman