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This session aims to investigate various photographic practices in Asia during the nineteenth century, when the introduction of photography and diversification of its practices accompanied the process of modernization and the European imperial powers’ expansion to the region. Exploring photographic practices in China, Japan, Korea, and India, the session attempts to shed light on the ways in which both local and Western photographers diversified the visual culture of Asia during the nineteenth century. In addition to revealing the hitherto little-known photographic culture of the region, the speakers attempt to ruminate on the history of the nineteenth century photography, including methodological issues and conceptual frame of modernity.