(Samurai wearing classical formal clothing) （直垂長袴の武士）

Charles PARKER was born in London into a well-to-do middle class family. In 1855 he entered the British army and was assigned to a regiment of engineers. Inspired by reports of a photographer who in 1856 photographed the Crimean War, PARKER decided to learn photography. The next year, while stationed in Ireland, he made a side business making photographic portraits of his fellow soldiers. He later served in the Indian Rebellion and in China, and in August 1861 retired from the military and set up a photographic studio in Hong Kong, leveraging his knowledge of the military to further his business. In about May of 1863 he moved to Yokohama and opened a photographic studio the following month. PARKER placed an advertisement in the Japan Herald on July 18, 1863, offering for sale a panorama photograph of Yokohama’s foreign settlement and the surrounding area. PARKER also made genre photographs like this in the carte de visite size, which he sold mostly to foreigners visiting Japan. We know that PARKER closed his studio sometime early in 1866, but his movements after that are not known. Because PARKER’s time in Yokohama overlapped with SHIMOOKA Renjo and Felice Beato, it is likely that had contact with them, as rivals or colleagues or both.