AN UNFOLDING VOYAGE (1875 onwards) – HMS Challenger was a British research ship that voyaged around the world between 1872 and 1876. Alongside its scientific objectives to record the depths of the oceans, sample the ocean floor and gather marine organisms, it was also charged with a photographic objective to record people and places encountered. Between April and June 1875, the ship visited Yokohama, Yokosuka and Kobe. The two-month stay was reportedly the most enjoyable of the trip. Japan had only recently been opened up to visitors and was about to undergo a rapid modernisation.

Since 2006, I have been rephotographing the locations in Challenger’s photographs of Japan. The images presented here reflect the changes that brought about in my methodology over ten years. Between 2006 and 2008, change was a shift from single straight photographs to ‘image sets’ which were recombined as photo-collages. Between 2009 and 2013, change was helping others to rephotograph locations elsewhere in the world visited by Challenger via a designed website. Between 2014 and 2016, change was accepting others’ views through involving their visual contributions in the photo collages made. Since 2016, I have largely abandoned the photo collage approach in favour of exploring a range of photomedia. When possible, I continue to visit these sites. Most recently, I have revisited with paper negatives.

Research between 2006 and 2008 was supported by the ARHC, UK. Research between 2013 and 2016 was supported by University of the Arts London and Tokyo University of the Arts.
Research from 2022 is supported by University of Tsukuba.