T. Enami
1898 (ca)
Japanese junks

Lantern slide, from a stereoview negative, hand-tinted
Private collection of Rob Oechsle
This late-nineteenth-century photograph was already over twenty years old when it was first received as a black and white print by the National Geographic Society. Perhaps being recognized by their staff as an already widely published stereoview image, they put it away in their files, passing on this while opting for other of Enami's lesser-known images to illustrate several stories on Japan. However, looked at again in the late 1980s, it evoked a sense of old art, and was honored by the Society as one of the best images from their 100-year holdings of world photography. For the Society's 100th Anniversary, they used their original black and white, full half-stereoview print version as the sole inset photograph on the first edition cover of the monumental Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic. This book served as a catalogue for the photographic exhibition held in association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. However, the original hand-tinted lantern-slide reproduced here is more representative of the earlier versions made by Enami's studio at the time he photographed it.
 
(Source: www.t-enami.org - Date accessed: Jan 2, 2008)
 
LL/26527