Manchuria Photographic Yearbook: 1930, South Manchuria Railway, President's Office Information Department

Description & Historical Context

Manchuria Photographic Yearbook — 1930

A distinguished photographic yearbook of 1930, compiled and edited by the Information Department of the President's Office of the South Manchuria Railway. The volume gathers a curated selection of artistic photographs of the region by named photographers of the day — figures of village and city, station mornings, dust-laden plains, temple scenes, working people, and the changing light of the Manchurian landscape — each plate credited and accompanied by the photographers' own reflections and a closing critique.

More than a record, the yearbook is a considered survey of the pictorialist photographic culture that flourished around the South Manchuria Railway, presenting the region as both a place of work and a subject of art. Produced as an institutional annual, it was issued in limited quantity, and copies are now uncommon. For students of prewar East Asian photography, of the South Manchuria Railway, and of the visual self-image of 1930s Manchuria, it is a primary source of unusual richness.

An elegant and substantial volume, of clear appeal to collectors of prewar East Asian photography and historical materials.

Offered by KT Vintage, drawing on decades of trusted international sales to discerning collectors and institutions across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.