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.
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.