John Green's photographs provide a valuable view of Burma in the 1920s.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Elizabeth Dell is Keeper of Non-Western Art and Anthropology, and Head of The Green Centre for Non-Western Art at The Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton. Her research work has included studies of collecting and museum history in the West, and their role in cultural representation.
John Falconer is Curator of Photographs, Oriental and India Office Collections, British Library. He has worked extensively on the history of photography in India and South-East Asia. His research with the British Library has included a major project to catalogue the Burma photograph holdings.
David Odo is affiliated to St Antony's College, Oxford University. His current research on the anthropology of photography focuses on Japanese colonial and anthropological images.
Mandy Sadan has worked in Burma since 1996, co-ordinating an oral history and archive project on behalf of The Green Centre for Non-Western Art at The Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton. She is also affiliated to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.
The Green Centre for Non-Western Art manages the African, Asian, Pacific and American collections in the care of Brighton Museum, recently designated collections of national importance. An endowment from the James Henry Green Charitable Trust supports the Green Centre programme of research and educational projects to promote a greater understanding of world art.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crucial Book Which Requires Careful Questioning,
This review is from: Burma: Frontier Photographs (Hardcover)
Having only had the book in my possession for an evening so far, I am struck by the range of photographs included in this much-needed collection, but also by the strangely ambivalent accompanying essays, which, admittedly I've only perused. As with many cultural and pseudo-scientific records produced under colonialism, there is much that is problematic with these photographs and more, the person and Empire responsible for their creation. In another review, Dr. Johnston feels that this book will contribute to increased tourism to the "Golden Land". This is exactly the spirit in which some of these photographs were made or reproduced in their contemporary context: to be consumed by inhabitants of the First World. Burma is not a Golden Land and has existed in the Western imagination as an idyllic repository for an "untouched and original" romantic primitivism. This book shows otherwise and in an indirect manner, points to some of the root causes for the genocidal strife encompassing Burma under the brutal State Peace and Development Council and its coetrie of merciless generals. As someone who does extensive collaborative documentary work with children here in the United States and with Karen refugee children on the Thai-Burma border, I'm disappointed by this book's tone and its indistinct or muffled point-of-view. The era of objective scholarship has passed. The images contained here have enormous bearing on both passive spectators in the West and on the ethnic minorities still struggling against cultural exploitation by eager tourists and fighting for political and religious autonomy and liberation from the dictators who inherited the crude construct of imposed nationhood from the departing British colonisers. As you read and examine this book, I urge you to so critically, to search out other information and to educate yourself and in so doing honor the visual memory of the people contained in these pages.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crucial Book Which Requires Careful Questioning,
This review is from: Burma: Frontier Photographs (Hardcover)
Having only had the book in my possession for an evening so far, I am struck by the range of photographs included in this much-needed collection, but also by the strangely ambivalent accompanying essays, which, admittedly I've only perused. As with many cultural and pseudo-scientific records produced under colonialism, there is much that is problematic with these photographs and more, the person and Empire responsible for their creation. In another review, Dr. Johnston feels that this book will contribute to increased tourism to the "Golden Land". This is exactly the spirit in which some of these photographs were made or reproduced in their contemporary context: to be consumed by inhabitants of the First World. Burma is not a Golden Land and has existed in the Western imagination as an idyllic repository for an "untouched and original" romantic primitivism. This book shows otherwise and in an indirect manner, points to some of the root causes for the genocidal strife encompassing present-day Burma under the brutal State Peace and Development Council and its merciless generals. As someone who does extensive collaborative documentary work with children here in the United States and with Karen refugee children on the Thai-Burma border, I'm disappointed by this book's tone and its indistinct or muffled point-of-view. The era of objective scholarship has passed. The images contained here have enormous bearing on both passive spectators in the West and on the ethnic minorities still struggling against cultural exploitation by eager tourists and fighting for political and religious autonomy and liberation from the dictators who inherited the crude construct of imposed nationhood from the departing British colonisers. As you read and examine this book, I urge you to do so critically, to search out other information and to educate yourself and in so doing honor the visual memory of the people contained in these pages.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful insight into the past,
By
This review is from: Burma: Frontier Photographs (Hardcover)
Superb photos, informative text - all in all, a fascinating work and a book which will surely entice many more tourists to the Golden Land....
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
