Browse an interactive album of photographs depicting cultural life in Japan.

Screencast of the interactive in use.

Initially developed to display medieval manuscripts, this interactive was refactored to display photo albums for a major exhibition on Felice Beato.

Felice Beato spent more than 20 years in Japan (1863–84), taking hundreds of ethnographic portraits and genre scenes. Although Beato was not the first photographer in Japan to sell albums of his works, he was probably the first to recognize their full commercial potential. He invited customers to select their own images from his stock of negatives, which he would then bind into albums. Self-selected albums generally reflected personal itineraries and sensibilities of individual customers.

Although this interactive is designed to mimic a Beato photo album, instead of simply reproducing all the pages, the content is organized thematically allowing visitors to explore in a more personal manner.

INTERACTIVE DISPLAYED IN-GALLERY

PROJECT
Produced for The J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road in 2010.

FORMAT AND DISPLAY
Custom interactive application running on 42" touch screen; also available online.

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Director: Paco Link
Technical Producer: Heather MacMillan
Writer: Anne Martens
Editor: Maria Gilbert
Developer: Mark Baltzegar