New exhibition in Mumbai showcases unique old photographs from the Indian subcontinent

Caves of Elephanta – 5. The Northern Aisle, William Johnson and William Henderson, 1855-62

Glimpses of sepia-tinted monuments of stone, captured on paper always evoke a nostalgic vibe. For curator Dr Sudeshna Guha, photographs are ‘complex, visual artefacts'. The former curatorial manager and research associate of the photographic collections at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, knows it well. Opening this week at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, in collaboration with DAG, the exhibition Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments, will present photographs from the DAG archives dating from the early years of 1850s to 1920s, to explore how the technology shaped and documented India's architectural heritage.

The Great Pagoda, View of the Sacred Tank in the Great Pagoda (Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai), Linnaeus Tripe, 1858

"The aim of the exhibition is to encourage visitors, engage with the materiality of a photograph, so as to allow them to reflect upon the many histories a photograph can tell us," Guha explains. Photography arrived in the Subcontinent in the years preceding the First War of Independence, a pivotal moment in its history. To that end, it is no surprise that the technology was part of the broader colonial project of shaping the narrative.

Sanchi Stupa, Lala Deen Dayal, 1880

Names such as Thomas Biggs, a founding member of the Photographic Society of Bombay; William Johnson, who set up the commercial studio of Johnson and Henderson in the mid-1850s; and the first war correspondent of his age Felice Beato feature as part of the exhibition. From Johnson's photographs of the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, to James Waterhouse's photographs of Sanchi, they offer an insight into European curiosity about India.

Mysore, Idol car at the temple of Chamondee (Chamundi Temple), William Henry Pigou, 1856. Pics Courtesy/DAG

Guha adds, "The histories of early photography show us the ways in which labelling, captions, presentations in albums and exhibitions of the photographs created histories that were not visible in the images themselves."

Yet, not all of the archive is defined by Colonial perspective. Indian pioneers include Lala Deen Dayal, Narayan Virkar, and Babu Jageshwar Prasad among others. However, they too started from a European aesthetic before adapting. Guha points out, "In fact, the photographs of Lala Deen Dayal and Narayan Virkar show how they adapted and worked upon the picturesque imagery brought to photography by Samuel Bourne, to create a high market value. Photography, after all, was a commercial enterprise. Yet, they also employed their photographs of architecture and superb skills to also create new ways of seeing things. Dayal's photographs of Ajanta and Ellora is one example."

Part of the Pillar of Kootub (Qutub Minar, New Delhi), Felice Beato

Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, trustee and director, Dr BDL Museum, adds, "The exhibition creates a necessary dialogue with these [the museum's] collections, inviting audiences to understand and view photography not simply as a means of recording histories of places and people but as a powerful medium through which histories were constructed by the colonial apparatus."

Sudeshna Guha and Tasneem Zakaria Mehta

For the Mumbaikar, a victim of constant redevelopment that erases public memory, it is a chance to pull back the curtain of time and view India through a different lens.

FROM July 21 to August 25; 10 am to 5.30 pm
AT Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla East.
Entry Museum tickets apply