Vignettes from colonial India

Doyens of photography

Abandoning his career as a clerk in a Nottingham bank, Samuel Bourne arrived in Calcutta in 1863, bringing with him a large amount of photographic equipment. A photography enthusiast, he spent seven years in the country during which he vastly toured and photographed imperial India – from the mighty Himalayas to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) — producing a “visual culture that packaged and represented a specific idea of India”.

Soon, in partnership with Calcutta-based photographer William Howard, they set up the Howard & Bourne photographic studio which went on to include English photographer and printer, Charles Shepherd. However, after two years of business, Howard left the studio and his name was dropped; and in alignment with a growing culture of studio photography, the Bourne & Shepherd establishment set up a branch in Calcutta (in 1866) — a studio that still operates.

“One of the most prestigious studios of the time, Bourne & Shepherd became a favoured destination for anyone who could afford it, to be ‘done’ at; and was patronised by both members of the British Raj and Indian nobility. While Shepherd came to be known as a master printer, staying back at the studio and managing the bulk of the portraiture, commercial and printing aspects of the firm, Bourne assumed the position of the travelling photographer, immortalising the Indian scenery, architecture and people through the length of the country,” writes Shilpa Vijayakrishnan, research associate and writer at Tasveer, an organisation committed to the art of photography, in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Bourne & Shepherd: Figures In Time’.

Part of Tasveer’s 10th anniversary celebrations, this exhibition of 19th century vintage photographs sourced from the holdings of Museum of Art and Photography, Bengaluru (MAP), includes a range of landscapes, architectural views and portraits by the photographers and the studio.

The idea behind the exhibition, says Nathaniel Gaskell, curator and associate director, MAP, is to introduce Bourne and Shepherd, and their particular brand of 19th century photography, to a contemporary audience. “Photography is such an ubiquitous medium today, but few people actually stop to think who the pioneers of the medium were, or its significance in the history of visual culture in the country. As the leading studio of the day, in the early chapter of the invention of photography worldwide, Bourne and Shepherd’s importance in the history of photography in India is undeniable.” He adds that Bourne was one of the most prolific photographers in India at the end of the 19th century; and because of the sheer number of photographs he took, and how much of the country he, and his studio, documented, they provide an “incredible visual record of how India looked in the 19th century”.

Comprising 41 images, the exhibition showcases the wide range of photography practiced by the studio. On display are vintage frames showing The loop on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (Darjeeling, 1880); His Eminence, The Viceroy’s Elephant, Delhi Durbar (Delhi, 1887); a portrait of His Highness, Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, G.C.S.I. (Jodhpur, 1877); and Vishnu temples on the Ganges (Varanasi, 1866), among others.

“A significant part of the exhibition was to not simply introduce, but ‘reintroduce’ Bourne and Shepherd. To this end, Tasveer has enlarged some of the images, and digitally enhanced them, so the audience is actually seeing select works in a way that they’ve never really been seen before. As these photographs were shot on a large plate camera, whilst the original photographs were quite small, they contained a lot of detail and information. This really lends them to being blown up. By looking at the details, and close ups of some of the figures who populated Bourne’s photographs, some over 150 years old, we see a whole new side to him, and this is what makes this particular show important,” Gaskell tells Metrolife.

He adds, “the fact that we have enlarged and enhanced select images serves to highlight the development of photographic technology in the last 150 years”.

But how relevant, and in which ways, are their works in the present time?
Explaining, the curator says that while on the one hand, the images act as a reminder of how much has changed, on the other they reflect that some scenes could still exist today.“If one considers the context in which these photographs were taken (of a colonised country), and the context now (of an independent country), that’s a huge gap — and India, and the world, has changed so much. On the other hand, what’s also interesting is that actually, some of these scenes could still exist today; the views of the ghats in Varanasi, for example. It goes to show how much history does in fact exist in the present in India, and how despite moving forward, there remain lingering traces of the past.”

Continuing, Gaskell says that what also makes the exhibition relevant is the juxtaposition of the original vintage photographs and enlarged modern reprints which “gives the viewer a unique insight into the nature of these historic images, and redirects our contemporary perspective by focusing our attention on details that seem negligibly microscopic in the originals”.

‘Bourne & Shepherd:
Figures In Time’ is on display at Exhibit 320, Lado Sarai, until June 10.