Views in the Far East: How Isabella Bird Came to Shape the Photographic Medium
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 9:00 AM
Description
Deborah Ireland, Independent Author, Researcher, and Curator, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Bath, United Kingdom
Views in the Far East: How Isabella Bird Came to Shape the Photographic Medium
In a letter warning John Murray of delays in returning to England and submitting text for her next publication “consequently my Korean book cannot be a Xmas book unfortunately,” Isabella Bird broaches the subject of using her own photographs: “Illustrations by a cheap process seem a great feature in books of travel now. I don’t think that I mentioned that I have a number of my own photographs for this purpose, negatives I mean”.
Writing from Japan three months later in July 1896, she tells Murray that as so many people wanted copies of her photographs she intended to self-publish 50 of her own images in a book using the collotype process. “It seems essential now to illustrate somewhat profusely by means of reproductions of photographs after somewhat fuzzy photogravures or collotypes I think. I wondered if by my combined efforts it could be brought out at Easter?”
The publication of a book was a practical way of supplying images to friends without losing her carefully crafted prints, the loss of which had been a problem in the past. The book was published in 1897, a small slim volume entitled Views in the Far East published by Seibel Kajima of Tokyo containing images of China, Japan, and Korea. Seibel Kajima was a highly accomplished photographer “Millionaire” who also introduced Isabella to hand-colouring lantern slides.
Korea and her Neighbours, a two-volume edition, was eventually published by John Murray in 1898, and contained a mix of engravings and “fuzzy photogravures”. Murray arranged for the engraver Whymper to use Isabella’s photographs as a basis for his line drawings, and she was delighted with the results. However, when The Yangtze Valley and Beyond was published a year later, it was illustrated with 106 of Isabella’s own images, reproduced as photographs, marking a complete change from her previous publications.
Deborah Ireland is a writer, curator, and researcher on the History of Photography with a special interest in Travel Photography. She has worked with both The Royal Geographic Society and Royal Photographic Society with her most recent exhibition, Space Steps at the RPS in 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. In 2025 she will be leading a tour to China following in the steps of John Thomson and Isabella Bird. Publications: Isabella Bird a photographic Journal of Travels through China 1894 – 1896 in association with The Royal Geographical Society in 2015. Hasselblad and the moon Landing 2018. Judges Travel Photographer of The Year The British Guild of Travel Writers annual awards.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Ireland, Deborah, "Views in the Far East: How Isabella Bird Came to Shape the Photographic Medium" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 26.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/26
Views in the Far East: How Isabella Bird Came to Shape the Photographic Medium
Deborah Ireland, Independent Author, Researcher, and Curator, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Bath, United Kingdom
Views in the Far East: How Isabella Bird Came to Shape the Photographic Medium
In a letter warning John Murray of delays in returning to England and submitting text for her next publication “consequently my Korean book cannot be a Xmas book unfortunately,” Isabella Bird broaches the subject of using her own photographs: “Illustrations by a cheap process seem a great feature in books of travel now. I don’t think that I mentioned that I have a number of my own photographs for this purpose, negatives I mean”.
Writing from Japan three months later in July 1896, she tells Murray that as so many people wanted copies of her photographs she intended to self-publish 50 of her own images in a book using the collotype process. “It seems essential now to illustrate somewhat profusely by means of reproductions of photographs after somewhat fuzzy photogravures or collotypes I think. I wondered if by my combined efforts it could be brought out at Easter?”
The publication of a book was a practical way of supplying images to friends without losing her carefully crafted prints, the loss of which had been a problem in the past. The book was published in 1897, a small slim volume entitled Views in the Far East published by Seibel Kajima of Tokyo containing images of China, Japan, and Korea. Seibel Kajima was a highly accomplished photographer “Millionaire” who also introduced Isabella to hand-colouring lantern slides.
Korea and her Neighbours, a two-volume edition, was eventually published by John Murray in 1898, and contained a mix of engravings and “fuzzy photogravures”. Murray arranged for the engraver Whymper to use Isabella’s photographs as a basis for his line drawings, and she was delighted with the results. However, when The Yangtze Valley and Beyond was published a year later, it was illustrated with 106 of Isabella’s own images, reproduced as photographs, marking a complete change from her previous publications.
Deborah Ireland is a writer, curator, and researcher on the History of Photography with a special interest in Travel Photography. She has worked with both The Royal Geographic Society and Royal Photographic Society with her most recent exhibition, Space Steps at the RPS in 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. In 2025 she will be leading a tour to China following in the steps of John Thomson and Isabella Bird. Publications: Isabella Bird a photographic Journal of Travels through China 1894 – 1896 in association with The Royal Geographical Society in 2015. Hasselblad and the moon Landing 2018. Judges Travel Photographer of The Year The British Guild of Travel Writers annual awards.
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