Documentary Spotlights Photographer Frank Matsura At VIFF

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A new documentary film, Our Mr. Matsura, explores the life and work of Japanese photographer Frank (Sakae) Matsura (1873-1913), whose empathetic lens captured rural communities in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century. The film is screening this week at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Produced, written, and directed by Beth Harrington, Our Mr. Matsura tells the story of an orphaned photographer born into a samurai family in Hirado, Japan. Matsura emigrated to the United States and found an unexpected home in a small town in Washington state's central Okanogan County, a mining region near the Canadian border, at the turn of the 20th century. With his charm, fluent English, and Christianized Japanese heritage, Matsura quickly integrated into the community, befriending and photographing both Native people of the Colville Confederated Tribes and newly arrived settlers, including miners, ranchers, shopkeepers, and cowboys. His death from tuberculosis at age 39 prompted one of the largest funerals the region had ever witnessed.

Matsura's photographs, including engaging portraits, event documentation, landscapes, and unusual self-portraits, provide a historical glimpse into a period of significant change. His work created a unique space that allowed him to act as a bridge between cultures. His playful self-insertion into photographs, which revealed a camaraderie with his subjects, alongside his distinctive stagings, possibly influenced by the carnival-like scenes at a Shinto temple in his hometown, anticipate contemporary photo-conceptualism. These images also reflect a time when photography democratized portraiture, a format previously reserved for the aristocracy. Matsura's portraits of ordinary townspeople, often laughing, dressed in their Sunday best, or at community picnics, celebrate photography as a slow, intimate art.

His portraits of members of the Colville Confederated Tribes were particularly groundbreaking for their era. Curator Michael Holloman, who organized a touring exhibition of Matsura's work at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane (2023-24), notes in the film that Matsura's photographs empowered Indigenous people at a time when their images were frequently contrived or romanticized.“He wanted them to be comfortable,” Holloman stated.“He also pushed the boundaries at a cultural level,” he added, citing a portrait where Matsura intentionally foregrounded an Indigenous girl while placing a white girl at the margins.

Harrington was initially inspired to create the documentary by Matsura's focus on Indigenous experiences. A visit to the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma in 2002 led to an encounter with Matsura's work, which ultimately sparked her five-year filmmaking journey. Harrington informed The Art Newspaper that Matsura's work challenged the romanticized images of“noble savages” by Edward Curtis and others, which often erased signs of modernity and promoted the idea of“vanishing” Indigenous cultures. Matsura's photographs, by contrast, conveyed a casual familiarity and closeness between the sitter and photographer, suggesting personal agency.

She added that his photographs also appeared to transcend prescribed social boundaries, noting,“At that moment in 2002, they transcended time with a freshness that defied photographic conventions of the day.” Harrington discovered that over a century after his death, descendants of the individuals in Matsura's photos still remembered him, his connection to their families, and stories of his contributions to their communities. The film features several of these descendants posing within frames, honoring Matsura's influential personality and vision.

Harrington observed that in Matsura's photographs,“we encounter his humanity, the humanity of others depicted who may not be 'like' us, and we also feel our own humanity rise in a kind of sympathetic vibration. That depth, that joy, that connection forms a bridge.” Given current political tensions and immigration crackdowns in the US, Harrington believes Matsura's story is particularly poignant. She described him as“A Japanese immigrant alone in a region hundreds of miles from his nearest countryman, who forms deep bonds with people from diverse backgrounds.” Harrington concluded,“One can't help but marvel at the combination of emotional intelligence, empathy, humour and inner fortitude it must have taken to navigate the challenging landscape of the Pacific Northwest at a time of great transition.”

Our Mr. Matsura is scheduled for screenings on October 4 and October 5 at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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