As Instagram and other social media swell the ocean of photographs surrounding us, we are at risk of becoming desensitized to all but the most arresting of images. "Many photographs are, alas 'inert under my gaze.'" wrote the semiotician Roland Barthes in "Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography." Barthes added: "Even among those which have some existence in my eyes, most provoke only a general and, so to speak, polite interest."
As a Japan-based photojournalist, I have sought out many illustrated books on the country by foreigners over the years, from Herbert G. Ponting's 1910 "In Lotus Land Japan" to more recent titles. With a few notable exceptions, the common thread is an abiding romanticism. As uncritical tributes, these are books we flick through and briefly admire but seldom allow to dwell in our consciousness.
