Ellen Handy is associate curator at the International Center of Photography in New York. The article is an excerpt of the book Delivering Views: Distant Cultures in Early Postcards which examines the interpretation of photographic postcards from all over the world. It examines Japanese photographic postcards using the case study of a group of cards from the Jefferson R. Burdick collection of printed ephemera. She focuses her study on the nature of Japanese beauty (beauty in its people, its industry and in its land). Issues such as the western outlook on Japanese women, the silk industry, and the role of advertising in postcards are discussed. The article is written in journalistic style and would appeal most to a reader involved either in collection of art such as postcards, or to a traveler.

As an academic reader, I found many flaws in Ms. Handy's writing. First, she focuses her study on a collection of photographic postcards that is not really focussed on those from Japan (those present constitute a small percentage of the whole collection), and that lack certain important categories of images of the Japanese people and culture. She also credits a lot more attention to the Burdick's collection for its own sake thus making part of the article feel like an advertisement for a showing of the collection and leaves the reader with more questions after reading the article than they had before. Nonetheless, as a journalistic article, it provides for some entertaining reading. The postcard plates in the book, especially those dealing with Japanese beauties, are well selected and provide some insight to the nature of early Japanese photography.

Kevin Immonje