THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY, edited and translated by John Junkerman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, 404 pp. $65 (cloth).

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, deserves kudos for sponsoring this superb slab of a book. This is certainly an impressively organized, thoughtful and comprehensive homage to many great Japanese photographers. The lavishly reproduced 206 images spanning 150 years evocatively capture the range and evolution of photography in Japan and eloquently amplify the seven scholarly essays.

Japanese photographic aesthetics are shown to reflect both changing international and local tastes and contexts. Indeed, the fascinating discussions of cultural context and influential individuals impart a greater appreciation for what is essentially Japanese and quintessentially universal in these photographs. International influences continually inspire new developments and genres, resonating in often fascinating ways among local artists. Here we come to understand shared lineages and distinctive visions.

Curator of photography Anne Tucker laments how the emphasis on the universal in photo criticism has been overdone: "artists of different nationalities may share aesthetic and topical concerns that override mere regional interests, [but] to minimize cultural differences needlessly diminishes the levels on which the work may be approached. For instance, while Yasumasa Morimura confronts issues of gender identity, celebrity, and art as a commodity, he also deals frequently with the complications of being an Asian man trying to relate to traditions of Western painting and Western standards of beauty."