Omoide | Memories: Photographs of Japan from the QVMAG Collection

Captured by travellers, collected in Tasmania and preserved at QVMAG, these photographs offer glimpses of Japan across generations.

From the bustling streets of Meiji-era Japan to the landscapes and everyday scenes encountered by travellers in the 20th century, Omoide brings together photographs from the QVMAG Collection that capture changing views of Japan across more than a century.

Omoide translates as 'memory' or 'reminiscence' — a fitting title for an exhibition that explores not only what these photographs show, but also the ways Japan was experienced, remembered and represented by visitors from overseas.

Photographs of Japan have been part of the QVMAG Collection since before the Museum was formally established. This exhibition includes photographs donated by Charles Smith, whose collection of Japanese photographs was previously explored in the 2005 QVMAG exhibition Meiji Memories. The exhibition also includes photographs donated by Francis Jackson, who worked in Japan in the early 1880s; Lady Ramsay, who visited Japan in 1911; and HB 'Bert' Davies, who travelled there in the 1960s and 1970s.

Bringing together photographs spanning more than a century, Omoide invites visitors to consider the ways Japan has been photographed, remembered and represented by those who travelled there.