Little did I imagine on my initial visit to Japan in 1970, how important that nation would become for me. Over time, my fascination with the country’s cultural history and accomplishments led me to a more focused personal attachment to Japan.
My personal interest in photography developed under the influence of my younger brother, David, a well-known photojournalist. He taught me how to look carefully at images and to appreciate the moment when an image was fixed on paper forever. As a collector of 19th-century vintage material, I look for rare items, images that cannot be replicated in later years, since the original negatives have long since disappeared.
My initial purchases in Japanese photography comprised three photographs from Mack Lee, a dealer in Winchester, Massachusetts: two by Kusakabe Kimbei and one by Felice Beato, Fusiyama Pilgrim. This photograph was the first in a line that now numbers well over 500 Beato photographs in albums, cartes-de-visite, and individual prints.
How lucky we are today that Beato’s sojourn in Japan coincided with that country’s dynamic escape from Tokugawa isolation to Western-influenced industrial development. In terms of his impact, Beato is the Babe Ruth of early Japanese photography. But we are in New England: the best analogy would be that he is the Ted Williams of this beautiful and historically important art form.
Tom Burnett
New York City