The publication is produced in association with the “Artists on Photography” fellowship awarded by the Münchner Stadtmuseum’s Photography Collection. It draws on the output of fellows Lilly Lulay and Eksuda Singhalampong to explore the collection of non-European travel and souvenir photography bundled together with historical photo albums from South Africa, India, Japan, China, Vietnam, New Zealand, Argentina, and other countries. Who traveled to the Global South in the nineteenth century to take photographs there, and who purchased the pictures and albums? How were the different countries and people depicted? What role did photography play in the nineteenth century as a source of souvenirs, and how has this been changed by globalization? What kind of afterlife do these images and the sometimes violent structures that inform them have in the age of AI? The book is rounded out by thirteen short essays by experts from the particular regions.
Dortje Fink, Esra Klein and Noa Lohrmann are on the 2025/2026 “Museum Curators for Photography” scholarship program.
Artist Lilly Lulay is examining the impact of new media on photography and how it is perceived in everyday life.
Kathrin Schönegg is a photo historian and heads the Photography Collection at the Münchner Stadtmuseum.
Eksuda Singhalampong is an assistant professor of art history at Silpakorn University, Bangkok, researching gender and postcolonialism.
With texts by Rahaab Allana, Idurre Alonso, Yining He, Dinh Hong Hai, Ankan Kazi, Esra Klein, Noa Lohrmann, Wakita Mio, Keishi Mitsui, Hlophina Mokoena, Eksuda Singhalampong, Matariki Williams, Madoka Yuki