essences

while photo- graphers in the west struggled to define them- selves, to them- selves and to the world, as artists, many japanese printmakers were going through a similar process. ironically, it was due to the popularization of the camera that interest began to falter in woodblock prints in japan, as one impor- tant function they had ful- filled was to document.


artists in france were going through a related process, breaking free of the documentarian, glorified, idealized portrait of life that was still what was considered appropriate as real art in france. impressionists and printmakers were hotheads; this would all blow over. documentation was no longer a goal of




many of the fine arts, and thus artists were freed to explore the sensations, impressions, of a particular place, rather than its precise dimensions.