Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira, Subject Of The Earliest Surviving Japanese Photograph (1857)
Japan got its hands on photographic technology through the Dutch merchants trading in Nagasaki Bay. In 1854, Kawamoto Komin published “Ensei-Kikijutsu,” the first Japanese book on the matter. Three years after that, this photo of Shimazu Nariakira is said to be “the first successful photograph in Japan.” The subject of the daguerreotype was a “daimyo” or feudal lord of the Satsuma fiefdom. Britannica said that his “adoption of Western military techniques and armaments helped make Satsuma one of the strongest fiefs in the country and put the han in a position to play a leading role in the overthrow of the Tokugawa state and the establishment of a new imperial central government in 1868.”
Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira, Subject Of The Earliest Surviving Japanese Photograph (1857)
Queen Victoria (1857)
Royal.uk said that Queen Victoria is “associated with Britain’s great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.” Shot in April 1857, this photo used to be attributed to a photographer called J. Mayall, but the credit goes to Leonida Caldesi. In the following years, he worked on more photos of various members of the royal family.
Queen Victoria (1857)
