by Zahid Chaudhary

A detailed, insightful examination of Beato's famous photographs from Lucknow in March 1858 showing skeletons and the remnants of battles just fought in the city.

The author, a Professor at Princeton University, uses the photographs to offer an extended meditation on the juncture of photography, violence, and the colonial fantasy. Illustrated with images from the Alkazi Collection, Wellcome Library and elsewhere, the paper offers a thoughtful way of understanding early photography's role in transmitting shared myths among its beholders.

Photograph: The Ruins of Sammy House Surrounded by Scattered Bones of Sepoys Killed in Action. Felice
Beato, 1858, Wellcome Library, London.