Photography and Tibet

(Paperback)

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Description

Mysterious and often inaccessible, Tibet has been a source of fascination to outsiders for centuries and a troublesome and resistant subject for photographers.

Even today, photography of Tibet often remains embroiled in debates about Tibet's past, present and future. This book is the first historical survey of photography in Tibet and the Himalayas. It offers a remarkable new insight into the attempts of foreign and Tibetan photographers to document the country from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Leading Tibetologist Clare Harris combines the results of extensive research in museums and archives with fieldwork in Tibetan communities to present material that has never been seen or discussed before. Images featured in this book include the earliest photographs taken in Tibet in1863, the experimental camerawork of senior Tibetan monks, including that of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, and the creations of contemporary Tibetan photographers and artists

Reviews

"Photography and Tibet brings to the fore a selection of remarkable work presented in an accessible and engaging way. This is an inspiring book from which students and researchers alike will derive great benefit, and one which also has wider resonance for historical geographers working with visual archives in very different contexts."-- "Journal of Historical Geography"
"Harris's wonderful Photography and Tibet is part of the Reaktion Books Exposures series, which provides introductions to the history of photography related to specific themes and regions. Photography and Tibet accomplishes this in providing a much-needed introduction to the history of photography in Tibet and surrounding regions of the Himalayas. However, Harris gives us much more, as along with this historical overview, she reveals how the history of photography in Tibet can also be seen as the history of the way Tibet has been imagined beyond its borders by Westerners, Chinese, and others, and how this imagining has directly influenced colonial engagement with Inner Asia and the Himalayas."-- "Trans Asia Photography Review"
"Photography and Tibet is a richly informative and a hugely entertaining read. . . . The bottom line--for anyone with a passion for photography or Tibet, ideally both, this is an absolute must-have book."--Jamyang Norbu "Shadow Tibet"

Author Bio

Clare Harris is professor of visual anthropology in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, curator for Asian collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. She is the author of several books, including In the Image of Tibet, also published by Reaktion Books.