Photographer Discovers Forgotten 19th-Century Photos of Japan and Reimagines Them Today

Aug 29, 2026 - 16:13

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Photographer Discovers Forgotten 19th-Century Photos of Japan and Reimagines Them Today

Two young women in pastel Lolita-style dresses and headwear pose against a plain background, each holding a decorative parasol.

A photographer uncovered a trove of forgotten 19th-century photographs of Japan in her family home and used them as inspiration for a series of modern portraits in a fascinating new book.

While rummaging through old boxes in her family home in Piedmont, Italy, photographer Giada Ripa discovered an album containing 53 hand-colored photographs by Felice Beato, one of the earliest visual chroniclers of Japan, documenting Japanese society in the 1860s.

Two women in traditional Japanese kimono and wooden geta sandals stand on a dirt path, one holding a large paper umbrella.

A bald man wearing glasses, a dark jacket, and a long green apron stands against a plain background, holding a large red fish.

A man in a blue kimono carries a bamboo pole across his shoulders with baskets of fish hanging from each end.

Beato settled in Japan shortly after the country opened to the Western world. At the time, the shogun restricted access to foreigners, allowing them into the country largely as part of diplomatic missions. For more than 50 years, until the early 20th century, Beato’s hand-painted photographs of Japan were widely used in travel diaries, illustrated newspapers, and other published accounts, helping shape Western perceptions of Asian societies.

A full-length portrait of a Japanese man in traditional samurai attire, including a kimono, hakama, and two swords tucked into his sash.

A shirtless male kickboxer stands barefoot against a plain background, wearing black and silver trunks with sponsor patches and a championship belt.

A few months later, Ripa discovered an unpublished manuscript by her distant ancestor Mathilde Ruinart, who had lived in Japan during the same period and befriended Beato. Ruinart was a 19th-century artist and muse to several intellectuals who traveled to Japan in 1867 with her diplomat husband to seek new varieties of silkworms for export to Italy. Ruinart’s writings from her time in Japan provide a detailed account of the country during their stay.

A hand-colored studio portrait of a samurai in full armor, wearing a horned helmet and a fierce mask, holding a baton.

A woman in a black corset and hat stands holding a rope that is tied around a kneeling man wearing a blue shirt and black pants.

Felice Beato Straw Raincoat © Giada Ripa

A person with long, black and white braided hair wears a blue translucent visor, a black turtleneck, and a multi-colored faux fur coat.

Inspired by the work of Beato and Ruinart, Ripa set out to retrace their footsteps, combining their historical perspectives with her own photographic approach. In Japan, she followed the paths taken by Beato and Ruinart and used an analog large-format camera to emulate the slow and deliberate documentary approach of her predecessors.

Ripa’s photo book The Yokohama Project (which will be published by GOST Books on September 28) brings these three perspectives together to examine how Japanese society and the country’s landscape have changed over roughly 150 years.

Felice Beato Nichiren Priests or Zan Shu These priests are of the Nichiren-shu sect, an order of about six hundred years standing © Giada Ripa

Kanshin Mochida – Buddhist monk (持田貫信 – 僧侶) Chief Priest, Shohozan Honkyuji (照法山・本久寺) “This priest is of the Nichiren-shu sect, an order of about six hundred years standing.” © Giada Ripa

The Yokohama Project includes carefully reproduced spreads featuring rare rice-paper reproductions of Beato’s original photographs alongside Ripa’s images. The book is divided into two chapters. The first follows an archival and anthropological journey along the locations and viewpoints documented by Beato and Ruinart, examining what remains and what has changed over time.

A person with bright orange hair styled in buns stands against a plain background, wearing a black dress with a white lace collar and holding a large Hello Kitty plush toy.

A delivery worker in a green uniform and cap stands against a white background, holding a large cardboard box printed with the design of a delivery truck.

A woman in traditional geisha makeup and a black kimono with a floral skirt sits on a large, smooth white oval object in front of bamboo blinds.

The second chapter features studio portraits taken in Tokyo. Ripa photographed modern fishmongers, geishas, fashion designers, writers, wrestlers, priests, and artists, creating a contemporary counterpart to the Japanese people Beato photographed and categorized as “native types.”

Together, The Yokohama Project presents a 150-year visual dialogue about Japan through the work of three Western artists, connecting a long-forgotten photographic archive with contemporary life.

The Yokohama Project by Giada Ripa is available for pre-order on GOST Books.

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