Autumn view of maples, Oji, Tokyo -- CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image


From Japanese Lantern Slides (Dominican University) in CARLI Digital Collections.

Dominican University has published a wonderful collection of lantern slides from the late 19th century depicting scenes from Japan.

I had difficulty choosing a single image to feature here, but I finally selected this photo of a woman walking in Oji, Toyko.

The image has a haunting and unworldly quality. We do not see the face of the woman in the photo. She is walking away from the camera, and we only get a tantalizing hint of her profile. When I look at people in early photographs, I always get this sense that I am looking at ghosts. The enigmatic appearance of the woman in this photo heightens that feeling.

The painterly aspect of the photo also contributes to its otherworldliness. First, there is the literal paint or pigment applied to the image as the glass slide was hand-colored. You can see areas where the pigment has worn away, but otherwise the colors look surprisingly fresh. The composition of the photo is also artful. The image is perfectly framed by the trees and captured within this frame is this woman walking on a path. Through the gap in trees behind her is a perfect layered landscape of water, a bridge with a fisherman, more water and a building in the background with more trees climbing in the distance. The image seems to be more the work of a landscape artist than a photographer.

The Japanese Lantern Slide collection contains many more delights, and I recommend taking some time to discover them all.

Written by Alice Creason, Head of Library Technology & Technical Services at Lewis University

For more information about this and other CARLI Digital Collections, visit http://collections.carli.illinois.edu

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