The Impact of Photography on Travel Imagery and Its Dissemination in Britain, 1839-1888
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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details The World on a Plate: The Impact of Photography on Travel Imagery and its Dissemination in Britain, 1839-1888 Charlotte Mullins, Ph.D., Art History University of Sussex, September 2012 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted, either in the same or different form, to this or any other university for a degree ………………………………………………………………………………………… University of Sussex Charlotte Mullins, Ph.D., Art History The World on a Plate: The Impact of Photography on Travel Imagery and its Dissemination in Britain, 1839-1888 Summary This thesis explores how early photography contributed to the visual understanding of the world in the nineteenth century. It draws extensively on the collection of nineteenth- century photographic albums at the National Maritime Museum, London. These albums, compiled or purchased by officers in the Royal Navy, offer an extensive view of how the world was perceived by both the officers who collected photographs during overseas service and the photographers who competed to supply them. Chapter 1 considers two personal photographic albums compiled by naval officers Frederick North and Tynte F. Hammill. Through these it reveals the agency of the collector as a curator of their own world picture, and introduces wider currents visible across the archive. Chapter 2 explores the impact of photography on the visual representation of the Crimean War and the competitive market for travel imagery in Britain. Chapters 3 and 4 explore the work of photographer Felice Beato, the studio albums he created in Japan and Korea, and the role of the British navy and military in Asia – a significant early market for overseas photography. Chapter 3 looks at Beato’s Views and Costumes albums (c. 1868) and problematizes previous readings, arguing for a more nuanced and cross-cultural approach. This chapter also offers evidence to support a realignment (caused by previous misbinding) of the V&A Views album. Chapter 4 employs Beato’s Korean album (1871) as a case study and reveals pictorial slippage across albums previously believed to be homogenous. Chapter 5 explores the secondary use of overseas photographs as engravings in the British press and publications. The thesis concludes that nineteenth-century photographic albums compiled by naval officers while on overseas service offer visual evidence that vision underwent a profound shift during this time and that looking at the world became subjective, fragmentary and contingent. Table of Contents v List of illustrations x Key to albums xi Key to abbreviations and glossary of Japanese terms xii Geographical spellings xiii Thanks and acknowledgements 1 Introduction. The world on a plate 2 ‘Captain’s Cabin’ 4 ‘Guns of the Naval Brigade’ 5 Realism and ‘truth’ 7 Subjective and contingent vision 10 Felice Beato, the Royal Navy and Japan 13 The nineteenth-century world: Ways of seeing 15 Cultural fusion: Felice Beato and ukiyo-e 18 Imperialism, the Royal Navy and Felice Beato 21 Chapter summaries 24 Chapter 1. The whole imagined world: The photographic albums of naval officers Frederick North and Tynte F. Hammill 24 Introduction 26 Naval officers and the market for photography: Photographs of Asia 28 Representations of Japan 28 (i) Tynte F. Hammill’s album 31 (ii) Frederick North’s album 34 Naval life and the centrality of the ship 38 ‘Cultural Crossings’: problematizing the ‘other’ in naval albums 39 (i) Wang-Kim-Shoon 41 (ii) Mr Cook and Mahomed/Muhamed 44 (iii) Japan and the adoption of Western dress 47 Naval officers and the market for photography: Photographs of artworks 51 The officer as curator 55 Performative albums 58 Conclusion 61 Chapter 2. The Crimean War: Photography becomes competitive 61 Introduction 63 Photographers in the Crimea 67 James Robertson and Felice Beato: A stylistic divergence 67 (i) James Robertson and the picturesque 69 (ii) Felice Beato and the autoptic view 73 Photographic sales 73 (i) Photographic sales in the Crimea 76 (ii) Photographic sales in Britain 81 Conclusion 84 Chapter 3. ‘A realized fairyland’: the Western photographic construction of Japan 84 Introduction 85 Felice Beato and his Yokohama studio: The market for overseas photography 95 Studio albums of Japan 96 (i) Felice Beato’s Views albums 97 (a) ‘View on the New Road – Mississippi Bay’ 103 (b) ‘The Temple of Hatchiman – Kamakura’ 107 (ii) Felice Beato’s Costumes albums 109 (a) ‘The Original “Grecian Bend”’ 113 (b) ‘A pic-nic group’ and ‘The Executioner’ 116 Problematizing Felice Beato’s Japan albums 116 (i) Modern Japan: Signs of fracture in the visualization of ‘Old Japan’ 122 (ii) Album slippage: Anomalies between subject, image and text 126 Conclusion 129 Chapter 4. ‘Under the flag’: Photographing war and the studio album 129 Introduction 131 The 1871 US expedition to Korea 135 Felice Beato’s Korean albums 137 (i) ‘The Council of War’ 141 (ii) ‘The flag of the Commander in Chief of the Corean Forces […]’ 144 Problematizing Felice Beato’s Korean albums 144 (i) Pictorial slippage within Felice Beato’s ‘Interior of Fort McKee’ 149 (ii) Staging death: Felice Beato and the manipulation of corpses 155 (iii) Staging photographs and the ‘other’: Korean officers and/or prisoners 161 Felice Beato’s Korean albums in the marketplace 168 Conclusion 172 Chapter 5. Japan and Korea translated: The dissemination of the photographic world view through books and the media 172 Introduction 174 The camera as copier 175 Photographs and their dissemination in the media 175 (i) The Illustrated London News 176 (a) Representations of the Crimean War in the ILN 179 (b) Representations of Japan in the ILN 184 (ii) Beato’s Korean photographs 184 (a) The 1871 Korean altercation in Harper’s Weekly 189 (b) The 1871 Korean altercation in the ILN and The Graphic 192 Images of Japan in memoirs and travel volumes 195 (i) Aimé Humbert, Le Japon Illustré (1870) 198 (ii) R. Mounteney Jephson and Edward P. Elmhirst, Our Life in Japan (1869) 203 Conclusion 205 Conclusion. The world in an album 211 Bibliography 233 APPENDIX A. V&A Album X536: Discrepancies between the current position and the original studio position of photographs and album notes within the album 236 A brief description of the photographs in V&A Album X536 240 (i) Current position of photographs and album notes 246 (ii) Spreadsheet showing original studio position and current position of photographs and album notes 255 APPENDIX B. Felice Beato’s 1871 Korean albums: Comparative catalogue information 257 Albums consulted: Further notes 261 A brief description of the photographs in Beato’s Korean albums 267 Spreadsheet showing five examples of Beato’s Korean studio albums, showing the variation in material included and album order 271 APPENDIX C. Albums consulted for this thesis 271 Catalogue of NMM albums cited in thesis 276 Key for catalogue abbreviations in spreadsheet 277 Catalogue of all NMM albums consulted: spreadsheet 287 Additional albums consulted: England 290 Additional albums consulted: America 292 APPENDIX D. Felice Beato: A biographical summary Volume 2: Illustrations Please note: Illustrations are bound in a separate volume List of illustrations 1 Anonymous, ‘Captain’s Cabin’, c. 1888 2 Felice Beato, ‘Guns of the Naval Brigade on the extreme of the right attack, before Sebastopol, 1855. Photo. by Beatto’, 1855 3 James Robertson, ‘The bridge over the Tehernaya at Trakhir[?]’, c. 1855 4 Felice Beato, ‘Chutter Manzil Palace, With the King’s Boat in the Shape of a Fish – First attack of Sir Colin Campbell in November 1857, Lucknow’, 1858 5 Felice Beato, ‘Interior of the Secundra Bagh after the slaughter of 2000 rebels by H. M. 73rd Highlanders, Lucknow, 24th Punjab Infantry’, 1858 6 Album page showing Mary A. Burnip’s decorative display of portrait photographs in a fan motif with rosebud detailing, c. 1870s 7 Anonymous, ‘Officers of H.M.S. Rodney, Yokohama July 23rd 1869’, 1869 8 Album page captioned ‘“Rodney’s”’ (top centre), 1868-70, ten studio portraits of naval officers in various groupings 9 Album page showing North’s decorative display of portrait photographs in a fan motif with gold, red and blue detailing, c. 1870s 10 Album page, [n. d.], a photograph of a print of a young woman reading surrounded by eight carte-de-visite size photographs of men, including Frederick North 11 Felice Beato, ‘Mississippi Bay, near Yokohama’, c. 1870 12 Album page, c. 1869, eighteen small-format photographs of Japanese people, views and illustrations, and one photograph of Rio de Janeiro 13 Charles Wirgman, [price-list], 1864 14 Album page, c. 1870, seven hand-coloured albumen prints by Felice Beato 15 Album page, c. 1870, five albumen prints by Felice Beato 16 Album page, c. 1870, five hand-coloured albumen prints by Felice Beato 17 Felice Beato, ‘View on the New Road – Mississippi Bay’, 1868 18 Anonymous, naval cadet group photograph including Tynte F. Hammill (standing, centre), 1865 19 Album page, [n. d.], eight oval studio portraits with hand-drawn gold borders surrounding a photograph of a three-masted ship 20 Anonymous, ‘H.M.S. “Nelson”, Williamstown (Melbourne) 1887 – Afternoon dance’, c. 1887 21 Album page titled ‘Hercules’, [n. d.], five carte-de-visite size studio portraits and one ship’s portrait (HMS Hercules?) 22 Album page titled ‘H.M.S.