Take a stroll between Japan’s past and present
Giada Ripa’s ambitious project combines archive photography from the 1860s, a modern dominatrix – and the story of a relative who became a muse to 19th-century artists and intellectuals
TL;DR
- The Yokohama Project by Giada Ripa explores the transformation of Japanese society and landscape over 150 years.
- Ripa discovered a 19th-century photographic archive by Felice Beato and a manuscript by her relative Mathilde Ruinart, who lived in Japan at the same time.
- The project emulates the documentary style of Beato and Ruinart using an analogue large-format camera.
- It consists of two chapters: an archival journey and studio portraits of contemporary Japanese individuals.
- Beato's photographs shaped Western perceptions of Asian society.
- Ruinart was in Japan with her diplomat husband, seeking silkworm varieties.
- Ripa is aware of historical distortions and simplifications in Western views of other cultures.
- The work is described as subjective impressions of a Western traveler navigating the space between past and present.