Gestreepte windebloemen before 1897

Curator: This is "Gestreepte windebloemen," or "Striped Morning Glories," a photo print from before 1897 by Kazumasa Ogawa. Editor: Oh, how delicate. There's such a dreamy, ephemeral quality to these morning glories, especially the way the red stripes seem to blush across the petals. Curator: Ogawa was a pioneer in photography, playing a key role in introducing collotype printing to Japan. This process allowed for a subtlety in tonal range and detail that wasn't achievable through other methods at the time. Consider the late 19th century context. Photography was rapidly transforming society by capturing the world with scientific precision, influencing art, news media, and visual culture. Editor: The symbolism of the morning glory is fascinating here, because it is such a short-lived blossom; a potent symbol for the fleeting nature of beauty, of time itself. I think the way they're presented, against that subdued background and arranged so carefully, almost feels like a memorial, doesn’t it? To youth or the fragility of life, perhaps. Curator: I think you've touched on something significant about the wider appreciation of natural forms, certainly something influenced by Japonisme. It created a surge in popularity for East Asian art and aesthetics. These works began to be displayed in western museums and galleries. Editor: The red stripes—they almost feel like a deliberate insertion of dynamism, a pulse of life contrasted against the white, suggesting passion or intense feeling. Perhaps representing the artist's emotional state while photographing this particular piece of floral nature? Curator: Or perhaps even speaking to social change through subtle, unexpected color? Given Ogawa's professional ties, it would have been a sign that artistic communities could explore symbolism in novel, evocative ways. The work almost presents as a counterpoint to academic conventions, at least to a point. Editor: Well, looking at it again, there’s a tension between the precision of photography and the fragility of its subject that feels poignant and relevant to discussions about art, beauty, and decay to this very day. Curator: Absolutely. The still life gives a social framework for an understanding of aesthetics in Japan, or even across photography on the whole, and challenges the way people viewed nature as a political object at this moment.