Research Guides: Early Photography in Asia: Korea

Rare and Distinctive Collections

rad@colorado.edu

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Classroom: Norlin N345

Reading Room: Norlin M350B

Rare Books Librarian

Sean Babbs

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East Asian Librarian

Xiang Li

Contact:

xiang.li@colorado.edu

(303) 492-7454

Subjects: Asian Languages & Civilizations

Introduction

The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries holds a variety of early photographs of Korea, most published in books or albums. Photography arrived late in Korea, coming from Chinese and Japanese photographers after 1876 (the end of its isolationist period). While a few Korean photography studios began in the 1880s, it was mostly Japanese photographers who were able to run successful studios in this early period. This was only reinforced as Korea fell more and more under Japanese influence and then, in 1910, under full Japanese colonial control. Westerners, coming to Korea in larger numbers for the first time, also took many photographs of a culture much different than there own. Photographs of Korea from this early period, in other words, are colored by the imperial Japanese lens or the general western lens of exoticism and the "other."

Digitized photographs

Photograph album of a Japanese family in Manchuria, colonial Korea, and Japan, 1920-1922
A family album or collection of photographs compiled by a Japanese family who traveled in Manchuria and Korea in the years 1920-1922. Many of the photos are carefully labelled in Japanese with place names, dates and personal names. This album provides a view of Japanese (as opposed to European/American) colonialism in Asia in the early twentieth century.
12 photographs of colonial Seoul, taken by American Albert Kane in the 1930s
American Albert Kane studied and wrote about China and Japan, traveling throughout both places in the 1930s. At some point, he spent time in colonial Seoul in Korea, then known as Keijo and under Japanese occupation. The images document local Korean peoples and architecture.

Published photographs of Korea

At the CU Boulder Libraries

Western photographers

Chosön, the land of the morning calm : a sketch of Korea by Percival Lowell
Call Number: RBC DS902.2 .L91 1885

Publication Date: 1885

Note: link goes to a digital copy of the 1886 edition.
Lowell was one of the first westerners to spend time photographing and living in Korea. In August 1883, he served as a foreign secretary and counselor for a special Korean diplomatic mission to the United States. He then went to Korea and lived there from December 1883 to March 1884, when the photographs in this book were taken.
The Burton Holmes lectures : with illustrations from photographs by the author by Burton Holmes
Call Number: RBC Scuba G138 .H74 1905 v.10

Publication Date: 1905

Note: link goes to a digital copy of the 1908 edition.
Burton Holmes was a famous American travel lecturer, who traveled the country putting on popular lectures showing travel photographs and early film from around the world. Volume 10 of this set focuses on Korea and Japan and includes his photographs.
The story of Korea by Joseph H. Longford
Call Number: RBC DS907 .L8 1911

Publication Date: 1911

Note: link goes to a digitized copy.

Secondary sources on photography in Korea

Photography and Korea by Jeehey Kim
Call Number: Norlin - Art and Architecture- TR106.5.K56 2023

ISBN: 9781789147100

Publication Date: 2023

Photography and Korea is the first history of Korean photography for a Western readership. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, when Korean travelers brought photographic technology home from China, Photography and Korea presents multiple visions of the country, Korean diasporas, important Korean artists, and local photographers. The book also addresses studio and institutional practices during the Japanese colonial period, how photography connects with Korean political and cultural history, and the divergence of practices after the division of Korea. Featuring numerous striking images, this book is essential reading for all interested in the history of Korean photography.