POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Margaret Preston travel photograph albums

Object No. 2009/104/5

The ten albums marked 'Snapshots' include images taken and collected by Australian artist, Margaret Rose Preston (1875-1963) who was born in Port Adelaide to David McPherson and Prudence Cleverdon McPherson, and spent most of her 20s and 30s in Europe studying and practising art. She married to William Preston in 1919 and died in Sydney in 1963. Margaret Preston established her own aesthetic views through still-life paintings and wood block prints. She opened her interest on the beauty of Asian paintings - especially Japanese wood block prints - in her 20s while she was in Paris and London where various Asian arts attracted the public's popularity in the late 19th century. Especially the influence of Japonisme from Japanese ceramics, traditional paintings and prints is found in the art works of Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Moreover, the certain styles of wood block prints are often found in Margaret Preston's works as it was one of the major media, and her appreciation of Japanese woodblock prints is documented in her writings in the 1940s. The albums depict Margaret and her husband Bill Preston's two extensive journeys to Asia between World Wars; the first trip from late December 1925 and the latter from April 1934. The albums contain black and white loose and commercial photographs, souvenir postcards and travel brochures. By 1920, photography was well established as a popular pastime and a profession. Foreign travellers to Asian countries often purchased photographs taken by professional photographers during their visits. Many photographs and postcards with commercial captions and numbers were purchased en route. The photographs reprinted in the postcards were taken by professional photographers and travellers. For example, some of postcards found in the album number 4 marked "Ankor Java" on its cover were photographed by an Armenian professional photographer Onnes (or Ohannes) Kurkdjian (b.1851). He owned a photographic "atelier" studio in the port town of Surabaya on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Other loose photographs were mostly taken by Bill Preston and some by Margaret Preston. In the early twentieth century, Asia was the subject of Western wonder and speculation. To Margaret and Bill Preston especially the trips were significant in terms of solidifying her knowledge and interests in less-known cultures and arts. Margaret and Bill's images provided their own perspectives on the places photographed and collected. Their images of those countries are important historical documents as they enable viewers to better understand the complex social and cultural changes that have taken place at the time. Almost each image bears Margaret Preston's hand written explanation of places, presumably in chronological order. On the trip in 1925, the Prestons went to South-East Asian countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Southern China, Macao and Hong Kong. One postcard is dated in pencil "Mekong river Pnomp Penh 2nd Feb 1926". The second trip took them to China, Japan and Korea in 1934 while China and Korea were experiencing Japanese occupation. Strict restrictions were placed on political, social, economic and cultural affairs, and affected the lives of residents of both countries as well as overseas travellers. For instance, speaking Korean language was strictly prohibited in schools and all names within Korea were forced to be converted to Japanese. This explains the captions marked on photos of Korean landmarks in the album number 8 being written in Japanese, e.g. 'Keijo' (Seoul) instead of 'Gyeongseong'. In addition, due to the Japanese occupation, any travel involving China and Korea was only possible through Japanese travel agencies such as the Japanese Tourist Bureau established in 1912. It was a popular travel agency amongst Western travellers from Europe, America and Australia for travel to North-Eastern China, Japan and Korea. At its height in 1934, it had 22 branches in large cities around the world including New York and Los Angeles. A small travel booklet titled 'HOW TO SEE TAKAMATSU & ITS VICINITY' printed by Takamatsu City Office Japan Tourist Bureau in 1934 is included as part of the collection. The booklet gives evidence that the Prestons went to those countries via services from the Japan Tourist Bureau. Anna Kim, Curatorial Research Assistant with Min-Jung Kim, Curator