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This research paper explores the use of photography in colonial India. The thesis of the paper is that British photographers, through their choice of subjects and editing of their works, created a romanticized image of India as the British wished to see it. More recent photography has focused on the reality of the lives of the Indian people. Thus photography has moved from from functioning as an agent of colonial domination and political propaganda to a tool used to bring aid and compassion to those in need. Photography in India 4 Introduction Photography has been propagated as a tool that conveys reality. It represents the signified – the thing that has been photographed. In order for the subject to be represented in a photograph, it must have physically been in front of the lens. That very quality attributed to photography led to its use as a tool by colonial Britain to exert control over its established colonies. This paper discusses the use of photography in India as an agent of cultural domination. It will explore the British use of photography to forge an Indian identity that established the Raj’s control over the subcontinent and the use of photography by Indians themselves in an attempt to subvert the pictorial precedent established by the British colonists. The invention of photography was a significant moment in the ability to record people and events. It is a medium which seemingly conveys truth, while at the same time, its meaning is constructed and manipulated. It is with these issues in mind that one can examine the impact of photography in India. Photography first came to India in the nineteenth century with the European interest in the subcontinent. 1 The scenic panoramas were ideal for creating subliminal landscapes, while the identity of India’s people was manipulated by the cultural bias of the British. The Middle East was losing its broad appeal, and the focus on India rekindled the Western obsession with the mysterious East. 2 There is no specific date associated with the beginning of photography in India, but there are records of photographers working in India as early as the 1840s, not long after photography’s invention. 3 Among the many early photographs taken in India, some were of British officials or early colonists. However, as the popularity of the photographic medium escalated, the interest in photography as a means of capturing and revealing ―truth‖ turned quickly from photographing British subjects to capturing the landscape, architecture, and people of India. Photography in India 5 Many of the first images that were available and widely disseminated were images of the landscape and the architectural monuments of both Mughal and Hindu ruins. This style of photography operates within the pictorial themes of the picturesque, which represent images of vast, sprawling landscapes that highlighted the variations in the subcontinent’s topography. The concept of the picturesque was influenced by the emerging literate bourgeoisie, landscape painting, literature, and nature’s emerging role as commodity. Its aesthetic presupposes the beauty of nature and places the viewer in the role of voyeur within a protected frame that looks out onto the natural world. 4 The frame of the image it there to, ―guarantee that it is only a picture, only picturesque, and the observer is safe in another place—outside the frame,‖ 5 thus allowing the Victorian gaze to objectify the represented landscape of the colonized Indian ―other‖ through this established pictorial tradition. A stylistic subset of the picturesque is the sublime, which emphasized the awesome, raw, and horrible power of nature. The subject matter and imagery often focuses on the sublime peaks of the Himalayas or views of abandoned, crumbling architecture. The pictorial conventions of the picturesque and the sublime underscore the ideology and aesthetic tastes of mid-nineteenth century painting which were readily adapted to photography. One of the most noted photographers of the picturesque and sublime was Samuel Bourne. 6 Samuel Bourne Bourne was an English photographer whose primary introduction to the Indian landscape was during an 1863 trip to the Himalayas. 7 As a photographer he wanted to, ―. . . attain such rarefied spectacles and conceive of them as pictorially compelling photographs.‖ 8 Part of his desire was a deep seated regard for the beauty of nature, and part of it was financially driven. According to Gary Sampson, the ideals of the picturesque were ingrained in the Victorian Photography in India 6 mindset; so much so, that, as a pictorial type, it was hard to move away from it. It was through the vein of landscape painting, and photography’s desire to be taken seriously as an art form, that the picturesque came to be used widely in the medium. It was through this explicit and intentional style of image-making that Bourne contributed to the continuing objectification of India and its people, and aided — intentionally or unintentionally — in the British domination of the subcontinent. 9 Victorian society had an intense fascination with the natural world. This fascination stemmed from the desire to escape the trauma of modern life and experience the peace and tranquility of nature. This fascination and appreciation was shared by Bourne, which he conveyed through his photographs. The photograph, Panoramic View at Chini, 10 is a perfect example of the sublime in Bourne’s photography. The photograph shows the mountain ranges of Chini, a small village in Northern India. In the foreground is a village perched on the precipice of a jagged mountain range that encompasses the entire background of the photograph. The juxtaposition between the village and the imposing mountains creates an air of awe and majesty. Bourne would have encountered this location on his travels through India and used the natural setting as a framing element for the image as a way of communicating a pictorial type that would appeal to his intended audience: British nationals and tourists. The truthful, or real, quality of photography belies factors such as the manipulation of the landscape and the selection of a specific frame through which the image is shaped. This led to the acceptance of photographs of India as being representative of the place and its people. In reality, Bourne’s images were shaped through a British way of seeing; through the pictorial type of landscape painting which was adapted to the medium of photography. He has objectified and commodified nature, the village, Photography in India 7 and India itself. Thus, Bourne’s images are representing and representing the Indian landscape for British consumption that conveys not India as it is but how the colonial other wants to see it. Despite the contemporary perception of the medium, these photographs convey little truth. The images, their representation, and meaning, are entirely constructed by Bourne. Take, for example, his photograph The Taj, from corner of Quadrangle 11 at Agra. Photographs of the Taj Mahal were popular, and Bourne capitalized on their marketability by taking many photographs of the famous structure. Architecture was perfectly suited for early photography due to the long amount of time needed to attain an accurate exposure. Photographing architecture at first appears to be an ideal way to convey the aura of a place and its people, but these photographs conveyed a false sense of India and shaped a strictly European view of the subcontinent. Bourne’s photography, while using an appealing aesthetic type, did little to convey the realities of Indian life. His images revealed an exoticism that was appealing to European tastes, but he abstracted India from its people. 12 In addition, the focus of photography during this period on Mughal monuments demonstrated Britain’s role as the ―new emperors‖ of the subcontinent. Felice Beato Felice Beato was another photographer who is often associated with India. He was an Italian who made his living as a war photographer. He gained his experience during the Crimean War between 1855 and 1856. 13 Beato travelled to India to take photographs of the First War of Independence, also known as the Sepoy Rebellion. Beato was a commercial photographer, and the marketability of his images was a serious concern. Moreover, his primary audience was comprised of British officers and colonists who wanted commemorative images of the triumph of Britain over the insurgent uprising. However, Beato arrived in Calcutta in 1858 five months Photography in India 8 after the rebellion and had to stage the photographs he took. 14 This is exemplified in his photograph Secundra Bagh, Lucknow, India. 15 The interior pavilion of the King’s palace at Secunderbagh was the site of the massacre of two thousand of the Indian soldiers who had taken control of the city from the British. The fact that Beato was not present in India during the rebellion meant that he would have to restage the events which occurred. His arrangement of the Indians and horses in the background draw the viewers’ attention to the decimated architecture; however, it is the arrangement of disinterred bones in the foreground which add the most striking element to this photograph. 16 This is indicative of the contrived nature of photographic images of India. These photographs presented, ―seemingly objective views. . ,‖ and found an eager audience amongst the British who followed news of the rebellion with great interest. Such images acted as an authoritative form of communication showing the horrors of the mutiny and the triumph of British imperialism despite the deliberate manufacture behind the image. Locations associated with the Sepoy Rebellion were not the only pictures he took during his travels. Beato also employed the visual aesthetic of the picturesque just as other photographers had. His photograph, The Taj with Fountains, 17 is another example of a European constructing an image of India. The photogra

Photography in Colonial and Postcolonial India as an Agent of Cultural Dominance