Old Asia Photography : Home

Old Asia Photography is London based and was established in 1982. It was previously known as Old Japan originally set up to focus on early Japanese photography. However, this site has been expanded to cover East and Southeast Asian 19th and early 20th-century photography. We now cover China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar/Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia. It is hoped that this site will be a useful research source for all those interested in early East and Southeast Asian photography.

New Features

Japanese Numbers List - REVISED APRIL 2023

Terry Bennett - Resume

I am a photo historian, writer and collector of 19th & 20^th- century East & SE Asian photography. My original focus was on Japan, and in 2007, I was honoured to receive the International Award from the Photographic Society of Japan. Over the years, I’ve broadened my interests to include other Asian countries such as China, Korea and Vietnam. My work has been translated into Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese. I have given talks on photo history in England, Canada, France, Japan, Switzerland, United States, China (Beijing, Dongguan, Yinchuan, Hong Kong & Shanghai) and Vietnam (Hanoi, Saigon).

2007: winner of The Photographic Society of Japan’s International Award

2011-2015: [History of Photography in China] included in the Chinese Government’s 12^th Five-Year Plan

2014: shortlisted for the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Awards for photography [History of Photography in China]

BOOKS

1995 [JAPAN: CAUGHT IN TIME] with Sir Hugh Cortazzi (Garnet Publishing)
1996 [EARLY JAPANESE IMAGES] (Tuttle Publishing)
1997 [KOREA: CAUGHT IN TIME] (Garnet Publishing)

2006 [THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS: COMPLETE RECORD OF THE OPENING AND MODERNIZING OF JAPAN, 1853-1899] (Global Oriental)
2006 [OLD JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS: COLLECTORS’ DATA GUIDE] (Bernard Quaritch Ltd)
2006 [PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN 1853-1912] (Tuttle Publishing)
2006 [PIERRE JOSEPH ROSSIER, PHOTOGRAPHE] with Gérard Bourgarel and David Collin (Pro Fribourg)

2009 [HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA: 1842-1860] (Bernard Quaritch Ltd)

2010 [HSTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA: WESTERN PHOTOGRAPHERS 1861-1879]
2012 [JAPAN AND THE GRAPHIC: COMPLETE RECORD OF REPORTED EVENTS 1870-1899] (Global Oriental)

2013 [HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA: CHINESE PHOTOGRAPHERS 1844-1879] (Bernard Quaritch Ltd)

2020 [EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY IN VIETNAM] (Renaissance Books)

ARTICLES

1991 “The Early Photographers: Photographing Japan 1860s–1890s,” [Japan Digest]
1995 “Early Japanese Images of Nineteenth-Century Japan,” [Japan Society Proceedings, No.126]
1996 “Early Photographic Images of Japan,” [The PhotoHistorian]
1997 “The Sentaro Daguerreotype: A New Episode in Japanese Photo-History Discovered,” with S.Dobson [The PhotoHistorian]
1998 “The First British Photographer in Japan: William Nassau Jocelyn and the Elgin Mission of 1858,” with S.Dobson [The PhotoHistorian]

1998 Summer “Photography in Korea, The Hermit Kingdom,” [The Historian]
2002 “Herbert George Ponting, 1870–1935: Photographer, Explorer, Inventor,” [Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. 4]
2004 “The Search For Rossier: Early Photographer of China and Japan,” [The PhotoHistorian]

2004 “Meiji Japan Through the Eyes of the Illustrated London News,” [Japan Society Proceedings, No.142]

2008 “China,” in John Hannavy’s Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, New York: Routledge, 2008.
2008 “Korea,” in John Hannavy’s Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, New York: Routledge, 2008.

2009 "Japanese Photography from Daguerreotypes to Souvenir Albums" [Exhibition Catalogue: Koshashin: The Hall Collection of 19th Century Photographs of Japan - Art Gallery of Alberta, April 4 - June 7, 2009]

2009 “Pierre Joseph Rossier: Pioneer Photographer in East Asia” [Old Photography Study No. 3, Nagasaki University Library, May 2009]
2011 "John Thomas Gulick (1832-1923) - Pioneer Photographer in Japan" [Trans-Asia Photography Review, vol. 1, no. 2, Spring 2011]

2011 "[Felice Beato] An Attempt at Classification" [Exhibition Catalogue: Felice Beato Photographer in Nineteenth-Century Japan: Selections from the Tom Burnett Collection - Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire October 29 to 12 December 2011]

2014 "Shimooka Renjo and the Mystery G.A.B. Stereoview Series" [Stereo World, January/February, Vol 39, No. 4]

2014 “Early Photography in China – Object, Identity, Motivation and the Commercial Imperative” [Exhibition Catalogue: The Dimension of Civilization, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan]

2016 "Corée" in Jérôme Ghesquière's La Photographie Ancienne En Asie, Paris: Nouvelles Editions Scala.

2019 “The Early Years of Photography in Beijing” [Exhibition Catalogue: 180 Years of Photography in China, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan]

2020 “Early Photography in Vietnam” [The Classic: (online) https://theclassicphotomag.com/early-photography-in-vietnam/]

2021 “History of Photography in China: New Discoveries and Research” [The Classic (online) https://theclassicphotomag.com/history-of-photography-in-china-new-discoveries-and-research/]

2022 “Itier and the First Photographs of China” [Exhibition Catalogue: Power and Perspective Early Photography in China, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts]

2023 “Pierre Rossier (1829-1886)” [Exhibition Catalogue: Mondes photographiques, histoires des débuts, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris, France]