[Buddha Sculpture] 1870s

Editor: Here we have Suzuki Shin'ichi's photograph of the Buddha sculpture from the 1870s, housed at The Met. It's truly impressive, though its realism, paradoxically, renders the sculpture almost lifeless, what with the tourists casually placed on it and nearby! What is your take on it? Curator: Well, let's look closely at the materials and process here. It's a photograph *of* a bronze sculpture, taken during a period of intense Western influence in Japan. Notice how the photographic process, inherently industrial and replicable, intersects with a traditional religious image. It raises questions about labor, doesn’t it? Editor: It does! How so? Curator: Consider the labor involved in creating the original sculpture - the mining, smelting, casting, the artistry… all intensive and communal work that accrued spiritual merit. Then, flash forward: photography as an emerging medium is, though artistic, of an industrialized form; also enabling mass consumption of this Buddhist imagery. We must consider how that labor and purpose contrasts. Editor: I see your point. So, you’re saying the photograph, as a commodity itself, transforms the spiritual essence of the sculpture, turning it into an object of orientalist consumption? Curator: Exactly! The very act of capturing and disseminating this image democratizes it, shifting it from a sacred object rooted in ritualized labor to a product circulating within a burgeoning global marketplace for exotic imagery. Think about who commissioned and consumed these photographs and why. Editor: That really changes my perspective! I hadn't considered how the act of photographing and circulating it contributes to a shift in its cultural function. Thanks! Curator: It’s fascinating to see how material transformations reflect and shape broader social and economic shifts. The layering here is remarkable!