Photographing Expatriate Abroad
Through the Eyes of a Collector: A Travel Album’s Photographic Voyage
Photographing Expatriate Abroad
Detail, Travel Album: China and Japan, early 20th century, collodion print, Gift of Jerome Hanauer 1989.66.1
Detail, Travel Album: China and Japan, early 20th century, collodion print, Gift of Jerome Hanauer 1989.66.37
Throughout the album, there are people who the collector chooses to represent repeatedly. They may have been the album's owner, family, and friends. These two photographs portray a group dressed in elegant clothing. The men are wearing suit jackets, shirts, and ties. Two men have mustaches and short hair indicative of the early 1900s. The woman is wearing a long, white dress with full sleeves and a high collar. Although the clothing would have been stylish in the Belle Epoque (1871-1914) United States and Europe, the background is Chinese. The large horizontal plaque above the door reads the famous poetic phrase: "The southeast region is the birthplace of the most talented people.” For the collector and their friends and family in the United States, the Chinese characters and the architecture were important signifiers of Chinese culture, whether or not they could read the signage.
Detail, Travel Album: China and Japan, early 20th century, collodion print, Gift of Jerome Hanauer 1989.66.45.
Detail, Travel Album: China and Japan, early 20th century, gelatin silver print, Gift of Jerome Hanauer 1989.66.138
Many photographs on different pages of the album feature this man, who may be the collector or someone the album’s owner knew well. The disparate tones of the photograph indicate that they were printed with two different techniques, at two different times, and captured in two different places. The first photograph depicts the man in front of a Taoist Temple, with a wall painting of Zhong Kui, a Taoist deity and demon-queller, at right. The subject is wearing a button-down shirt, trousers, and a gun on his belt. He may have been in China for work since his portrait is included amongst a group of images that otherwise feature mines. In the second photograph, the subject looks out from a boat, with his back to the camera. The two men sitting to his right are blurred, which means the photograph may have been taken while the boat, the photographer, or both were in motion.