Transformations. Old and New Photography from the Collections of the Asia and Pacific Museum

Transformations. Old and New Photography from the Collections of the Asia and Pacific Museum is the first presentation in the museum’s history of its photographic archive of over 77,000 items. The collection was built over decades thanks to the trust of more than 130 donors - photographers, researchers, diplomats and travellers who entrusted their private holdings to the museum. The images on show are not only a record of places and customs, but above all evidence of the processes at work in the societies of Asia and Oceania.

At the heart of the display are 80 selected photographs arranged in 40 thematic pairs. Setting older images - the earliest of them more than a hundred years old - against contemporary digital photographs opens a space for observing the dynamics of change in the culture, crafts, architecture and everyday life of the people of Asia and Oceania. The pairings touch on the transformation of the urban fabric, the realities of work, leisure, the theme of travel and rice cultivation, among others.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated bilingual catalogue with reproductions of the photographs on show and introductory essays on the role of photography in ethnographic museums. Admission is free.