Imperial Vision: Photography in British India 1857-1900, an essay by N. Sachdeva, is a historical overview followed by a detailed bibliography of catalogs, books and original 19th century materials in which photographic materials appeared. A valuable source of information in one place.

(From the beginning of the essay)

My ghosts are my mother's colonial past. I see images in the photographs of nineteenth century India reflecting the very same expressions I saw in her face. These images are our personal colonial heritage and much more, for they reveal the architectonics of imperialism, conveying the triumphal attitude of positivist science, glorifying the subjugation of the indigenous population. Steeped in a science of hierarchy, these images often romanticize the superiority of the Europeans over their “racial inferiors.”

Presently in my analytical development, the images of India document the morphological and historical representations of the Western episteme tangibly exhibited. When viewing certain types of ethnography portraiture, I am reminded of scientific photographs of animals used in medical experiments. Silent trapped creatures adorn the framed space – does the sentience matter? It is the poignancy felt in viewing. Alas for contemporary French philosopher Roland Barthes who argued that most photographs are “inert” images failing to provide some deep need to satisfy memory or Proustian reverie.