From dreams to specters. On the frontiers of empire -- Maritime and artistic education -- Military service and travels -- Serving emperor Maximilian in Mexico -- The legacy of Querétaro -- Empire lost -- Changing views. First visit to Japan, 1864-65 -- Serving empire in Absentia -- Felice Beato : mentor an model? -- First portfolios -- An expatriate market -- The coming of the globetrotter -- "The Mikado photographer affair." Touring Yokosuka Arsenal -- Photographing the emperor -- Censoring the foreigner -- The imperial commissions -- Circulation and display -- Picturing Hokkaido. Terms and duties -- The Hokkaido Commission -- Views of Hokkaido -- The aim as subject -- Reprographic afterlives -- Sex and violence in the teahouse. Preparations -- At the Vienna World Exposition -- A teahouse for Vienna -- Blood statement -- A merchant of images. Austro-Hungarian globetrotters -- The rise of the Japan Photographic Association -- Toward a global enterprise -- Constructing and contesting Japan. Four photographic albums -- Colored costumes -- Masters and apprentices -- The trials of Stillfried. Hermann Andersen and "Stillfried and Andersen" -- Professor Stillfried : an expert witness and instructor -- The consular courts and the arrival of Franz von Stillfried -- A new series, painted and unpainted -- Stillfried and the return to paints.