The Japanese Tattoo – Art and artifice in the 19 Century hand-colored photos (6) ???
admin on April 18, 2011 in Paper Writing Tips The Japanese Tattoo – Art in the 19th Century hand-colored photos trick (6) ??? alt = “
Okinawa Soba Year peak
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It was great idea to post them together. Now, people that are not so much interested in japanese photography can see how one photo could be modified just by applying colours. There is one more thing I like about this set: the same man – yes, the same tatto – yes, the same background – yes, the same pose – NO. Couple of years ago I wouldn’t even bother to analyze every single detail and angle of the photo. It took me some time to realize that identical photos are actually ALMOST identical. However "almost" makes a big difference.
Hi NOEL — Look at the left arm positions in #’s 1 and 2. That’s the biggest difference in poses. In all, there are exactly 4 poses (or "variants") among the 6 images. The photographer had to reload the glass negatives in the large view camera four times, and the guy obviously moved between exposures — as any of us would do while trying to hold that pose !
I noticed there are four poses – #1 and #3, #5 and #6, #2, #4. It’s just that in the beginning, when I just got interested in japanese photography I didn’t expect THAT kind of differences between "identical photos". This particular photo is quite popular, I saw it many times on eBay but I didn’t pay attention to such details because overall impression was like "hey, I’ve already seen this, next".
Nowdays, that kind of photos I cherish the most. One reason is that it helps to imagine the photo shoot, the photographer standing behind the camera saying "Stand like this/that. Hold your pose. Hold it. Hoold it. Hooold it. Damn it, I told you not to move." : D
The other thing is you get to realize that all these "identical" photos had equal status – they were all re-coulored, re-sold for many years. There was no way that the negative could be wasted, while nowdays professional photographers usually choose only one and the best shot from the whole photo shoot.
Noel — Yes, your pairing numbers are correct. Or, to say it another way, (2) and (4) are from unique negatives; (1) and (3) are from the same negative; (5) and (6) are from the same negative. Total of FOUR "VARIANT" IMAGES of the "SAME" SUBJECT. Only the applied tattoos make them all really "different" from each other.
Funny, now that you mention it, I don’t remember ever seeing this specific photo on eBay, although I am sure that, as you said, it must have been up for bids many times. It makes perfect sense, as many were made — and hand colored, one by one — over 110 years ago.
While putting together this post, I realized that this is probably the only photo I would probably collect simply for the differences in the colorists work, rather than for the photo itself !
I’m sure there are some pretty interesting, odd, and very cool TATTOO INTERPRETATIONS done by the colorists of this image, that have sold on eBay in the past, and are yet to come up again in the future !
And here it is again
Hi Noel — Considering that these are usually extracted from the set of Brinkley JAPAN folios, I’m not surprised to see it on eBay, and would expect more variant prints to come up many times over on eBay !
Interestingly, not one of mine came up as a loose print like that on eBay. All of my flicker set variants were copied out of bound volumes — one of which was from eBay — and the rest from book dealers and shops over the past 30 years.
Baxley Stamps (on-line) also has a loose print for sale at the moment, too.