Thomas Alfred Rust

Thomas Alfred Rust (1841 - 1904) was a professional photographer from Stepney, London, United Kingdom.

Marie Théophile Louis Rousselet

Marie Théophile Louis Rousselet (1845-1929), was a French traveller, writer, Geographer, archaeologist and photographer, who visited India in 1863. Amazed by the diverse richness of the landscapes, art and culture, and people, Rousselet extended his stay in India till 1868. He learnt Photography after reaching India, with a sole purpose to preserve the memory of the monuments …

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe (1809 – 1874) moved to India sometime before 1839 and began making daguerreotypes in the 1840s. Josiah Rowe was hailed as 'the father of photography in India' by Dr F. J. Mouat, a British surgeon, chemist and the first president of the Bengal Photographic Society. Apart from journal entries, there is no evidence …

James Robertson

James Robertson (1813–88), was an English engraver, artist and photographer who was active from 1853 to 1867 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), Crimea Palestine, Syria, Malta, Cairo and in India. Around 1852, inspired by the French engineer, Industrialist and photographer Ernest de Caranza, he took up photography, and for the next fifteen years devoted considerable time …

John Henry Ravenshaw

Portrait of John Henry Ravenshaw by J.J. Gray John Henry Ravenshaw (1833 - 1874), was an employee of the Bengal Civil Service, a photographer and the Magistrate and Collector, of Malda district of Bengal between 1865 and 1867. During this tenure, he got interested in documenting and photographing the ruins of Gaur City. The ruins …

William H. Pigou

William H. Pigou (1818-1858), he was a surgeon at the Bombay Medical Service and Calotypist. He took over the task of recording the ancient monuments from the first photographer to the Bombay presidency Colonel Thomas Biggs in early 1856.  Dr Pigou was a member of the Bombay Photographic Society from 1854 to1857. Colonel Thomas Biggs …

Maurice Vidal Portman

Maurice Vidal Portman (1860 - 1935), an officer in the Royal Indian Marine, self-fashioning anthropologist, historian and a photographer was an Assistant Commissioner and officer in charge of the Andamanese between 1879 and 1900. The British Museum commissioned Maurice Vidal Portman to scientifically document and photograph the disappearing races in the Bay of Bengal. He …

Richard Banner Oakeley

Richard Banner Oakeley (1834 – 1914), was an architectural writer and photographer, from England, travelled to Madras Presidency towards the close of 1856. He was one of the best photographers of archaeology in India during the 1850s. Near the end of 1856, advised by his friend Dr Andrew Charles Brisbane Neill, he visited the ruins …

William Brooke O’Shaughnessy

William Brooke O'Shaughnessy (1809 -1889) was an Irish physician and one of the strongest applicants for the title of the first photographer in India. He moved to Kolkata in 1833 where he became an Assistant Surgeon with the British East India Company. He is famous for his wide-ranging scientific work in pharmacology, chemistry, and inventions …

John P. Nicholas and James Perratt Nicholas

John P. Nicholas and James Perratt Nicholas were the founders of the earliest studio in Madras (Chennai) from 1857 to 1905. Their sister Emma married a clock-maker and photographer called John Parting, who left England for Ceylon to set up a daguerreotype studio. John and James Perratt Nicholas followed them, but John P. Nicholas went …

Eugene Clutterbuck Impey

Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830 - 1904), was born in Paris and joined 5th Bengal Native Infantry 1851. He was a third-generation to serve the East India Company in India. He was a prolific and skilled photographer and member of the Committee of the Photographic Society of Bengal 1865. He was among some of the 19th …

William J. Johnson

William J. Johnson (1820 to ?), arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) in the 1840s and served as clerk in the Bombay Civil Service from 1848 to 1861. He was an enthusiastic photographer who started his photographic career as a daguerreotypist in Bombay, India. He established and ran a Daguerreotype studio at Grant Road from 1852-1854. Under …

Robert Melville Clarke

Robert Melville Clarke (1834 - 1878), arrived from London to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1852 to join his posting at 2nd Bengal Cavalry. He was a keen explorer and self-taught photographer. Starting from 1850’s, photography was adopted as an important agent in civil and military exploration and reconnaissance. Officers in the British administrative, medical, and military establishment in …

Harriet Christina Tytler

Harriet Christina Tytler and Robert Christopher Tytler Harriet Christina Tytler (1828 to 1907) was a British artist, writer, and a pioneer woman photographer. She was born in Sikraura, Bahraich, India, where her father was an officer in the 3rd Bengal Native Infantry.  She was the second wife of Robert Christopher Tytler, a British soldier, naturalist …

Charles Shepherd

Charles Shepherd (?–1912) was an English photographer and printer who worked in India during mid-to-late 19th century.  He worked in a series of partnerships first with Arthur Robertson and started “Shepherd & Robertson" in Agra in 1862. "Howard, Bourne & Shepherd" was established in Shimla around 1863 by Samuel Bourne, Charles Shepherd, along with William …

John Burke

John Burke Posing the Afghan Amir Yaqub Khan, 1879. John Burke (1843 – 1900), landed in India as an Irish young boy from County Wicklow along with his father who had joined Royal Artillery in India. John Burke also joined Royal Artillery after some years as apothecary assistant and thereby learns chemistry skills. Burke had …

Robert Gill

Robert Gill (1804 - 1879) was a British military officer, antiquarian, painter and photographer in British India. He joined the 44th Madras Native Infantry as a cadet in 1824 and became Captain in 1840; finally, he was promoted to Major. Robert Gill A skilled painter and draftsman, Gill was a member of The Royal Asiatic …

Edmund David Lyon

Edmund David Lyon (1825 - 1891), retired Captain from British Army arrived in India from Dublin in 1862. On his arrival, he produced a series of views of Delhi, Agra, Cawnpore (Kanpur) and Lucknow in 1863-4. Lyon's photographs of northern India were relatively not popular with the public and not well marketed in North India. …

Hurrichund Chintamon

199-1920Hurrichund Chintamon_Early-Bombay-Photography Hurrichund Chintamon / Harishchandra Chintaman, was a pioneer of photography in India and who setup an early studio in Bombay (Mumbai) as early as 1860. Hurrichund Chintamon was a disciple of Dayanand and President of the Arya Samaj of Bombay in 1878.He attended the photography class at the Elphinstone Institution under the tuition of W.H.S. Crawford, in …

Frederick Bremner

Fred Bremner / Frederick Bremner (1863–1941) was a Scottish photographer, born in Aberchirder, Scotland. He left school at the age of thirteen to join his father's studio and worked there for six years. In 1882, Bremner travelled to India to join the photographic business of his brother-in-law G.W. Lawrie in Lucknow.  He opened and established …

John Edward Saché

John Edward Saché (1824-1882), born in Prussia as Johann Edvart Zachert, reached Calcutta from Unites States of America (USA)  in late 1864. Being capital of British Indian Calcutta (Kolkata) was an ideal place for photographers to establish businesses. John Edward Saché was a master of the picturesque, excelling in this style, and offering astonishing views …

F.W. Baker

F.W. Baker (active 1850s–1875s), moved to Kolkata, then Calcutta, India as an employee of Appleton and Co. He became an assistant to James William Newland in 1855 and was managing his daguerreotype studio till 1857. On his return from a photographic tour of the North West Provinces, he established a studio and advertised it as …

Darogha Ubbas Alli

Darogha Ubbas Alli, a 19th century Indian, was an assistant municipal engineer and photographer in Lucknow.  In the 1870s, following his retirement, Alli began photographing the city and its surroundings. He published three albums from 1874 to 1880. The Lucknow Album and Beauties of Lucknow both dated 1874. In 1880, he produced another photographic album, An Illustrated …

John William Newland

Indian woman in western dress, Calcutta John William Newland (?–1857) an English daguerreotypist hailed from Redgrave in Suffolk, England. He was titled as a traveling daguerreian photographer who spanned the continents. He started his travels from New Orleans in 1845, traversed via Panama and Jamaica to reach Lima, Peru in December 1846. In early 1847 …

John McCosh

John McCosh (1805-1885), a Scottish army surgeon and a photographer was, employed by the Indian Medical Service during 1831–56. He was considered to be one of the first war photographer and the first one to have worked in India. During his service as a Surgeon with the Bengal Army in the second Sikh War (1848-1849) …

Joseph David Beglar

Joseph David Beglar, or Joseph David Freedone Melik Beglar (1845–1907), was an Armenian-Indian trained engineer, well-known archaeologist and an excellent photographer working with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in British-India from 1860 to 1880. Beglar was interested in photography, a medium which had not been widely used in archaeology before; for the most part written descriptions …

It’s all in the game

A lot of people say I can't do it because I'm blind, or I have red hair, or my feet are too big. Get the right team around you, don't set boundaries and go for it. Sabriye Tenberken The journey of Portrait of a Nation from Kanyakumari started with a great bang. Thousands of people gathered, media …

Me, Mahātmā

Travel is the language of peace  Mahatma Gandhi It was 1982, I was 7 years old, and studying maybe 2nd or 3rd class in Seshasayee Paper and Boards, a school in Erode District in Tamil Nadu. I have a vague memory of one rainy day. when our teacher took the entire class to a movie. …

Love with Lomo

Shoot what you want, and don’t care about the rules, and like or dislike your pictureMatthias Fiegl I am always fascinated with Soviet and Post-Soviet Photographic equipment. They all have amazing stories and if you read, it’s like reading a Sherlock Holmes detective novels. This is the story of technology: Plagiarism, Piracy, and Profit and …