Photographer

See also, Artist.

Photographers in India include John Edward Saché (studios in towns across northern India); G.K. Vale, Bangalore; R.B. Holmes of Peshawar; D.J. Divechia of Rawalpindi; Guerra & Sons, Mhow, Central India; Herzog and Higgins of Mhow, Raja Deen Dayal etc.

Photographer William D. Holmes was the brother in law of John Edward Sache, one of the most prominent 19th century European photographers in India. Holmes joined Sache in Lucknow in 1877 and founded a studio in his own name in 1889.

FIBIS resources

• Wendy Pratt, "Life with Tea in India: the diaries of Samuel Cleland Davidson" FIBIS Journal No 24 (Autumn 2010), pages 36-46. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals. Samuel Cleland Davidson was a tea planter who was a keen amateur photographer. An example of his work is "On parade"

Related articles

• Clifton & Co, Photographers (Bombay)
• Postcard Publishers = Image Galleries and Articles relating to early postcard publishers of India.
• Photographic postcards of celebrated photographer Fred Bremner

Recommended Reading

• In Pursuit of the Past by FIBIS member Christopher Penn about Albert Thomas Watson Penn, one of the pioneering photographers of South India, who established his business at Ootacamund. Read the article "In pursuit of the past" The Hindu Metro Plus Coimbatore November 29, 2004, and the article Chasing the photographer, also from The Hindu (Chennai Metro Plus 4 May 2009). (This book has been favourably reviewed in FIBIS Journal no 21)

The Nicholas Brothers and A. T. W. Penn: Photographers of South India 1855 – 1885 by Christopher Penn (2014). Review by Richard Morgan – page 51 FIBIS Journal Number 33 (Spring 2015). the Nicholas Brothers were John and James Perratt Nicholas. A further review from "British photographic history" also mentions Dr Alexander Hunter, Linnaeus Tripe, John Parting, Edmund David Lyon, Willoughby Wallace Hooper and Samuel Bourne, in the Madras region.

• Early Photographs of Ladakh, edited with an introduction by Hugh Rayner, published 2013. This book has been reviewed by Robert Charnock in FIBIS Journal Number 30 (Autumn 2013), page 46

External Links

General

• Indian Raj British Indian Photography 1845-1947 (Harappa.com)
• The Tibet Album -British Photography in Central Tibet 1920-1950 including Photographers. This site provides access to the photograph collections of two British museums - the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and the British Museum (London).

Photographs

• Search the British Library’s Online Gallery
• Old Indian Photos: Historical Photographs of Indian Subcontinent –tagged for various categories. oldindianphotos.in
• History of Pakistan’s photostream on Flickr
• Perspectives of Early Photographers in Kashmir 1861-1920 by Hugh Rayner 21 Jan 2023. YouTube video presentation. The talk is illustrated with photographs taken primarily from the Hugh A. Rayner Collection of Early Indian Photography.

Articles

• "Photography in India" Page 10, Newsletter 44, Summer 2007 from the International Institute for Asian Studies(IIAS)-Netherlands issuu.com version, or download the Newsletter from iias.asia
• Photography in Colonial and Post Colonial India (pdf) by Megan Joyce
• Lens on the Great Game - Earliest commercial photographers in the North-West Frontier by Malavika Karlekar July 8 , 2012 The Telegraph, Calcutta, now an archived webpage.
• Burke and Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan by John Burke and Simon Norfolk: Conversation with Simon Norfolk. John Burke (1843?-1900) was the first ever photographer to make pictures in Afghanistan. simonnorfolk.com
• "Early British Colonial Travellers Show Earliest Images of India" by Ciaran Thapar, 5 May 2016. British Journal of Photography website, category Exhibitions. The work of Linnaeus Tripe, Dr John Murray and Samuel Bourne. Photographs from the Exhibition

Individuals

• Luminous Lint website A collaborative website sharing information on photography and photographers worldwide. For India related articles chose Connections from drop down box and add search term India in box immediately below.
• Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road. An exhibition at the J Paul Getty Museum. Felice Beato was in India 1858-60, and Burma 1887-1905.
  • Photograph: Hospital Shwebo, [Burma] with descriptions of different Ambulances, 1887 – 1897 Wall Street Journal, now an archived webpage.
  • Conservation of a Photographic Album from Burma. British Library Collection Care blog.
• Samuel Bourne. Wikipedia Photographs in Cambridge. Photograph by Samuel Bourne - Lake, Nynee Tal, 1860 flickr.com.

Bourne & Shepherd : Figures In Time An exhibition sourced from the photographic collection of MAP (Museum of Art & Photography, Bangalore) tasveerarts.com. Photographs from the exhibition 7 May 2016 bbc.com. Article by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri May 31, 2016. Scroll.in. "The Oldest Functional Photo Studio In the World Shuts Down In Kolkata After 176 Years" by Rakhi Bose Jun 17, 2016. scoopwhoop.com.

• Fred Bremner.
• John Burke Some biographical details by F S Aijazuddin. About Photography in Afghanistan John Burke and other early photographers in Afghanistan. Afghan Box Camera Project. Details of some photographs held at the Brown University Library, Providence R I, USA, taken in Afghanistan in 1878.
• Pioneer photographer Deen Dayal provides a portrait of India by Haroon Siddiqui April 18 2013 thestar.com Dayal (1844-1905) was a Hindu whose chief patron was the Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad , one of the richest men in the world, the ruler of the largest of India’s 565 princely states.
  • The Legacy of Raja Deen Dyal ignca.nic.in, now an archived webpage.
  • Rare 19th Century Pictures of India Examples of photographs by Raja Deendayal (1844-1905) on BBC news website.
• Captain R. B. Hill. Probably Richard Barton Hill 1835-1873, who joined the Bengal Army in 1853. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York collection of photographs 1850s. If link is not permanent, use the search term "Captain R. B. Hill".
• Oscar Jean-Baptiste Mallitte (luminous-lint.com) was a French surgeon turned photographer who arrived in Calcutta in 1857. The Planting & Manufacture of Indigo in India. 29 Photographic views by Oscar Mallitte [1877] (although fewer images are available online). J Paul Getty Museum. YouTube video , same images.
• John McCosh or MacCosh 1805-1885 Edinphoto.org.
  • There is an article "The Laboratory of Mankind: John McCosh and the Beginning of Photography in British India" by Ray McKenzie, in History of Photography, Volume 11, No. 2, April-June 1987, pages 109-118. This quarterly journal is available at the British Library.
  • Surgeon John McCosh, Bengal Medical Establishment, 1852 (c) nam.ac.uk
• John Murray (luminous-lint.com) "...is probably the most important photographer of nineteenth century India". Bengal Medical Service 1832-1871. Took up amateur photography 1849 and soon formed a friendship with another doctor, John McCosh (see immediately above). Getty Museum page with images.
• "The Sachés: a family of photographers working in India during the 19th century" by Stéphanie Roy Bharath PhotoResearcher ESHPh European Society for the History of Photography No 13, 2010 , page 4 (now archived). John Edward Saché (1824-1882), born in Prussia, arrived in Calcutta in late 1864, after working in the USA. John Edward Sache 1865-1882 harappa.com
• Linnaeus Tripe Wikipedia. Linnaeus Tripe, article on life and works by the V&A Museum.
• John Paul White. John Claude White - career Kings’ College London.

"Castles in the Air: Experiences and Journeys in Unknown Bhutan" by David Braun September 21, 2014 National Geographic, now an archived webpage. Article and photographs of Bhutan by John Claude White republished from the April 1914 issue of National Geographic Magazine

Sikhim & Bhutan, twenty-one years on the North-East Frontier, 1887-1908 by John Claude White. 1909 Archive.org

• Wiele & Klein, Madras and Ootacamund
  • Wiele & Klein Studio Advertisement A Trade advertisement for the Madras and Ootacamund studio of Wiele & Klein, "Artists, Photographers and Photo Engravers" britishphotohistory.ning.com
  • "The German Photographers of Madras" by Gabrielle Landwehr Part 1 , Part 2 (scroll down) Madras Musings Volume XVIII No. 14, November 1-15, 2008 and No. 15, November 16-30, 2008
  • Madras on glass 9 July 2003 The Hindu
• The Williamson Photographic Collection is housed in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge Yale (USA). Frederick Williamson was a British Political Officer stationed in Sikkim, Bhutan, and Tibet in the 1930s who was an ardent photographer. Williamson's 16mm films from the 1930s may be viewed online.

Historical books online

• "Photographic Notes" Appendix A, page 259 Lights & Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands of the Punjab, a Contrast by F St J Gore 1895 Archive.org. With photographs by the author.
• The Last Empire : photography in British India, 1855-1911. Texts by Ainslie Thomas Embree and Clark Worswick. 1976 Archive.org Lending Library. "Accompanies an exhibition organized by the Asia House Gallery of the Asia Society [London?] for the summer of 1976."
• From Kashmir to Kabul: The photographs of John Burke and William Baker 1860-1900 by Omar Khan 2002. Download from Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD). Includes chapters about Peshawar, Murree, Kashmir, the Second Afghan War, Lahore.