early photography in india

I am conducting research on early photo history in Asia and wondering if there might be some recent developments about India which I would not be aware of.

According to Pinney, the earliest known images of the subcontinent would be a portfolio of 23 calotypes from Uttar Pradesh, by an unknown photographer, with a date estimated to be between 1843 and 1845. This portfolio was last seen in a Christies auction in 1996.

The earliest images in the British Library collection are from the early 1850s and indeed, the oldest dated image in the catalog A Shifting Focus is from 1851. So there seems to be a big gap between these two known and documented instances of photography in India. Are there any other known works that would fill this gap that I am unaware of? Any other images that would be clearly dated with certainty in the 1840s?

thanks for the help.

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Replies

  • thanks for the lead, will get my school library to order it.

  • Didn't see the exhibition, but it is a mouth-wateringly beautiful book, well worth looking at in the flesh if you can find a copy.

    Giles

  • Thanks for these useful information. Indeed, when searching the web after posting my question, I came across a page on "impressed by light", which seems to have been a beautiful exhibition. Let see what the Getty might have to say about this album. thanks again.

  • Roger Taylor's Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-60 has a chapter and section of plates on the calotype in India, in which he illustrates examples by Alfred Huish dated 1848 and by John McCosh dated 1848-50. He says the album I think you are referring to is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, btw.

    Regards Giles Hudson

  • Roger Taylor is working on Linneaus Tripe and may have some observations to make.

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