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 = Galleries of early postcards 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 from The Hindu (now archived), 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)

• 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)
• Tony Davis’ Antiq-Photo biographies contains many names of photographers who worked in India, Burma and Ceylon in the 19th century. The site also has many photographs of India.
• 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 –divided into various categories.
• History of Pakistan’s photostream on Flickr
• India, Pakistan Postcards from Images of Asia c 1910

Articles

• Photography in India (pdf) from the International Institute for Asian Studies(IIAS)-Netherlands
• Pioneers of Indian Photography by John Falconer
• 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
• 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

Individuals

• 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 Different Descriptions of Ambulances, 1887 – 1897 Wall Street Journal.
• Samuel Bourne. Wikipedia Photographs in Cambridge. Photograph by Samuel Bourne - Lake, Nynee Tal, 1860 flickr.com.
• John Burke luminous-lint.com. 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. Retrieved 18 October 2014
• 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
• 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
• "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, a biography by the V&A Museum, now an archived webpage (retrieved 29 May 2014).
• 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. 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

• 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.
• 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
• 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
  • Rare 19th Century Pictures of IndiaExamples of photographs by Raja Deendayal (1844-1905) on BBC news website.

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.