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Uncovering India by Sophie Gordon
Uncovering India by Sophie Gordon
Sophie Gordon
To cite this article: Sophie Gordon (2004) Uncovering India: Studies of nineteenth-century Indian
photography, History of Photography, 28:2, 180-190, DOI: 10.1080/03087298.2004.10441306
Over the past three years, academic interest in nineteenth-century photography With grateful thanks to E. Alkazi, Esa
from India has been growing at a rapid pace. Seven significant books, as well Epstein and Takahiro Kaneyama for their
kind assistance with the preparation of this
as numerous important articles, have been produced during this period. Of article.
the seven volumes, three have been general surveys of the topic, each book
presenting a broad history of photography in India and each book marking an
important exhibition. These titles include: India through the Lens: Photography
1840-1911 (2000), India: Pioneering Photographers 1850-1900 (2001) and
Reverie and Reality: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of India from the Ehrenfeld
Collection (2003). Of the other four publications, Traces of India: Photography,
Architecture and the Politics of Representation (2003), is the only one to employ
a thematic approach and examines the photographic representation of Indian
architecture. The remaining volumes address the work of individual practi-
tioners such as the Greek photographer Felice Beato! in Beato's Delhi 1857, 1997 1 - Beato, usually described as Italian, was
born on Corfu, a Greek island. His name
(2000), the work of the British photographer Samuel Bourne in Samuel Bourne,
implies that he is descended from a family
Sieben Jahre Indien: Photographien und Reiseberichte 1863-1870 (2001) and the within the Italian community on the island,
partnership of Baker and Burke in From Kashmir to Kabul, The Photographs of although his appointment of 1873 as
John Burke and William Baker 1860-1900 (2002). Consul-General for Greece in Japan
suggests that he was happy to be identified
The publications have been greeted enthusiastically by photo-historians, in as Greek. He is also sometimes described as
part, due to the general assumption that little has been written about nineteenth- British, as Corfu was a British possession
century photography in India. With the appearance of these books, however, between 1814 and 1864, when it was
eventually ceded to Greece. Beato certainly
it is timely to look at the history of scholarship in this field. An assessment of referred to himself as British at least once
the past literature certainly dispels the notion that the subject has been under- during his lifetime.
researched. At the same time, such a review reveals neglected topics in the field.
This literature review also illustrates how some scholars attempt to broaden and
develop the area under discussion, while others restrict the field to a handful
of 'great' photographers. A complete bibliography of the referenced books,
catalogues and essays appears at the conclusion of this essay.
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Sophie Gordon
'people of India' assembled into one section, while Deen Dayal inevitably merits
his own category, as does Samuel Bourne and 'the search for the Picturesque'.
While these publications reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the India
Office collections, and consequently cannot be expected to provide a complete
picture ofIndia's history of photography, it is surprising that the same material
is used and reproduced repeatedly from a collection of over 250 000 prints.
Nevertheless, the importance of all three works, particularly India: Pioneering
Photographers 1850-1900, lies in the amount of detailed factual information
provided throughout, much of it the result of dedicated research by John
Falconer. Using the India Office records, Falconer has discovered an enormous
amount of information that has become invaluable to all subsequent scholars
exploring this field.
More recent publications, reflecting the growing maturity of the field,
provide in-depth study of narrowly defined topics. For example, the Canadian
scholar Janet Dewan and the late Bengali science historian Siddhartha Ghosh
have conducted research of a deeply focused nature. Dewan has examined
closely the work of Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902), culminating with the produc-
tion of a catalogue raisonne (2003). Ghosh, in Chobi-Tola: Bangalir Photographi
Charcha (1988) has taken a geographical approach, examining the history of
photography in the province of Bengal. During the nineteenth century, the city
of Calcutta was the capital of British India and the capital of Bengal. Ghosh's
work is an important investigation of the operations of commercial studios
Figure 1. Shapoor Bhedwar
in that province. As well as providing new information on Calcutta-based (act.1890s-1900s), No.4 'The Mystic Sign',
photographers, Chobi- Tola also considers the use of photographs within carbon print, ca.1890. The Alkazi
Bengali families. Ghosh is, to date, the only writer to have produced a book on Collection of Photography, 97.47.0001115.
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Uncovering India
183
Sophie Gordon
Imperial Ideologies
The appearance of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 led to a reassessment of
many texts concerned with the non-Western world, particularly literary works
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Uncovering India
from the colonial period. The texts were explored as illustrations of the power
relations between the colonisers and colonised. This work illuminated the
colonial attempt to control and administer new territorial acquisitions. Histori-
ans in particular embraced these ideas enthusiastically, art historians perhaps less
so, but the theory has been influential in humanities disciplines over the past
twenty years. It is only within the last five years, however, that nineteenth-century
photography has been discussed in terms of this post-colonial discourse.
James Ryan's Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the
British Empire (1997), is a primary example of the application of post-colonial
theory to photography. Ryan looks at photographs from India, China and
Africa as well as war photography and ethnographic documentation. In one
chapter, Ryan discusses Bourne's picturesque landscapes and mountain views as
reflecting the colonial gaze. Unfortunately, his analysis relies more on Bourne's
written narratives of his travels, than on Bourne's photographs. Ryan's starting
point, an assumption that underlies his whole thesis, is that the colonial context
can explain, and is responsible for, the resulting image. 'Colonial photographs'
(for want of a better term) whether from India, Mashonaland or Cyprus, are in
some way the same. The argument here is not conclusively made, as it fails to
engage with the visual aspect of the images, again relying on written accounts.
There is no consideration given, for example, to the complexities of image pro-
duction, use and dissemination within the economics of the nineteenth-century
photography market. This, an area that remains almost entirely untouched
in respect to India, would seem to be closely intertwined with colonial ideolo-
gies, particularly regarding official photography. In recent publications, other
scholars have developed these topics.
Recent Publications
Three collections of essays published recently attempt to examine some of these
issues by focusing on discrete groups of photographs. Two of these publica-
tions, Colonialist Photography: Imag(in)ing Race and Place (2002), and Picturing
Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination (2003) contain articles that
discuss photographs from different parts of the world, including India. Broadly,
the former primarily addresses photographs of native peoples and the concept
of race, while the latter features the role photographs play in creating a relation-
ship between people and place. The third book, Traces of India: Photography,
Architecture and the Politics of Representation (2003), concentrates on the
photographic documentation of Indian architecture.
Colonialist Photography and Picturing Place are similar in concept and
subject matter as authors in each book analyze images within the context of
the colonial experience. Colonialist Photography is somewhat unstructured, with
essays that vary in success, although the introduction written by editors Gary
Sampson and Eleanor Hight is a useful, balanced and thoughtful summary
of the issues involved. Picturing Place is organised clearly into three distinct
categories: the relationship between photographs and the creation of imagina-
tive geographies of the mind, the use of photographs in reinforcing national
identity and photographs from a colonial context. Of course, the latter category
in particular overlaps with the other two, but the tripartite structure is a useful
one.
Between these two publications, three essays concern, exclusively, photo-
graphy in India. In Colonialist Photography, John Falconer presents a detailed
publishing history of The People of India (8 volumes, 1868-1875), arguably the
most important ethnographical project to involve the camera. The American
scholar Gary Sampson reflects upon Samuel Bourne's landscapes of Barrackpore,
near Calcutta. In Picturing Place, Alison Blunt examines the portraits of British
families made in 1856-1857 by Ahmad Ali Khan (Figure 3).
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Sophie Gordon
Falconer's essay is a timely and important description of a project that is Figure 3. Ahmad Ali Khan, working as
'Chhote Meer' (act.1855-ca.1862),
mentioned frequently in secondary sources, yet has up to now received little
Lucknow, The Chattar Manzil Palace,
serious scholarly consideration. Falconer outlines the explicit and implicit albumen print, 1860. The Alkazi Collection
aims of the project, The People of India. He demonstrates convincingly that the of Photography, 99.07.000113.
claims from the introduction of the first volume (which explain the history
and purpose of the work) are misleading. Placing the work within the broader
context of ethnography in India, Falconer describes the development of the
publication, the initial enthusiastic reception of the early volumes and the lack
of interest in the later ones. There is also a detailed look at some of the photo-
graphers who contributed to the work, notably James Waterhouse, who toured
Central India in 1862, producing striking portraits of local royalty as well as
the tribal peoples of the area. Falconer's contribution highlights the richness
of the India Office records (in the British Library), which remain a relatively
underutilized source for the study of official photography in India.
The second India-related essay in Colonialist Photography is 'Unmasking
the Colonial Picturesque' by Gary Sampson. Sampson's essay examines a small
group of Samuel Bourne's photographs taken in 1867 of the government house
at Barrackpore. The picturesque aspect of Bourne's imagery is described in
familiar terms. However, Sampson makes a connection between the British
historical associations with Barrackpore and Bourne's decision to place a
European woman in these photographs - the only time that Bourne did this.
In the 1860s, Barrackpore was associated with the much-loved Lady Canning,
wife of the Viceroy, who died in 1861. She was eventually buried in the gardens
at Barrackpore. Sampson puts forward the original idea that the European
woman (whom he identifies as Mrs. Bourne) represents Lady Canning, and
perhaps more generally, an idealised British womanhood. Less convincing is
his association between the memory of the 1857 revolt (the so-called 'Indian
Mutiny' in which Indian troops rebelled against the British in Delhi, Lucknow
and Cawnpore), Barrackpore and Bourne's photographs of the Memorial Well
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Sophie Gordon
Conclusions
In looking at photographs of India, scholars are now moving from attempts
to establish a canon of 'artists' or to fashion a comprehensive single-volume
history, towards embracing the great, often bewildering, diversity of intentions,
conventions and results that is encountered in this material. Presently, much of
the most interesting work is being produced by anthropologists, social scientists
and cultural historians who recognise that the combination of these various
disciplines broadens the subject and provides exciting avenues for future
research. Traces of India, highlighting the extraordinary richness of the subject
(both academically and visually), stands as an accurate reflection of the current
state of scholarship within the field.
Of course, careful archival research is required, and the existing literature
demands greater attention, as careless errors are still encountered and perpetu-
ated. Moreover, there is reluctance on the part of some curators and dealers to
move beyond the well-known names of Tripe, Dr John Murray and Bourne into
less well-charted terrains. To this writer's knowledge, however, there are at least
five doctoral candidates at universities in the US and UK conducting research
into nineteenth century photography in India. This will continue the trend of
recent years of broadening the subject by questioning its perceived limits and
actively searching out new material. It can only bode well for the future.
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Worswick, Clark, The Last Empire: Photography in British India
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1977 Taylor, Usha Desai, 'Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographs in India and
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