Raj Photography Books

Books primarily about photography in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and Afghanistan between 1848 and 1947.

Lucknow: City of Illusion

Lucknow City of Illusion
Author:
Publisher: Prestel Publishing (2006)
Binding: Hardcover, 295 pages

A gorgeous book on 19th century photography, about the most well-photographed and interesting city that became part of British India and the geographic heart of Raj photography. The book features superb essays and spectacular photogems by Felix Beato, John Sache and other photographers of the period.Read more

Reverie and Reality

Reverie and Reality: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of India from the Ehrenfeld Collection
Author: Sophie Gordon, Omar Khan, John Falconer
Publisher: Fine Arts Museum Of San Francisco (2006)
Binding: Hardcover, 188 pages

Since its invention in the 1840s, photography has been used to record images of exotic locales. At the time, these photographs provided a glimpse of the world to a curious public, few of whom could ever hope to visit those places. In Reality and Reverie, a visual history of nineteenth-century India unfolds in an exhibition of 112 vintage photographs,Read more

The Prince of Photographers Raja Deen Dayal

The Prince of Photographers Raja Deen Dayal
Author: Narendra Luther
Publisher: Hyderabadi.in (2006)
Binding: Hardcover, 158 pages

A nicely printed and designed book about the foremost Indian photographer during the Raj, Raja Deen Dayal. The book covers many of his finest photographs, and the rise and fall of his studio in Hyderabad. With historic documents, advertisements and other memorabilia, written by a historian of Hyderabad.

Visualing Indian Women 1875-1947

Visualizing Indian Women: 1875-1947
Author: Malavika Karlekar
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2006)
Binding: Hardcover, 152 pages

A superb book, with close readings of images loaded with history and crisp observations. Karlekar really knows how to decode photographic gestures. The richness of imagery still available, in this case from private collections all over India, is amazing.Read more

Re-visioning the Past: Early Photography in Bengal 1875-1915

Re-visioning the Past: Early Photography in Bengal 1875-1915
Author: Malavika Karlekar
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2005)
Binding: Paperback, 208 pages

While initial chapters recount well known early Indian photographic history, the next ones comprise an intelligent and thought-provoking analysis of photography in Bengal and the role it played in mediating cultural relations between colonizers and the emerging Bengali middle and upper classes.Read more

Aperture and Identity

aperture and identity
Edited by Rahaab Allana

This exceptional 2009 magazine volume from Marg brings together a number of essays by new researchers. Much of the material and many writers are with the Alkazi Collection of Photography, which even supplied images for the beautiful ads. This is the first volume in a new thematic format by India's 60 year old Marg.Read more

Tropical Aracadia: Early Photography in Ceylon

Early Photography in Ceylon
This exhibition catalog for the 2009-2010 exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in Berlin has some nice pictures, especially by Charles Scowen, who is is slowly being recognized as one of the finest Raj photographers despite so little biographical information.Read more

Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital, 1936-1947

Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital, 1936-1947
Author: Elizabeth Edwards, Tsering Sharkya, Clare Harris
Publisher: Serindia Publications (2003)
Binding: Paperback, 176 pages

A collection of photographs of one of the last areas in South Asia photographed in the early 19th century. These largely amateur photographs taken by British visitors are glimpses of a world and way of life that have changed enormously; the book also includes material originally taken on film.Read more

From Bombay to Shanghai

From Bombay to Shanghai
Author: John Falconer, Steven Wachlin, Anneke Groeneveld
Publisher: Museum fur Volkenkude, Rotterdam, 1995
Binding: Softcover, 112 pages

One of the first books to explore photography in Southeast Asia was published in connection with an exhibition at the Museum of Ethnology in Rotterdam, Holland in 1994.Read more

Murree A Glimpse Through the Forest

Murree A Glimpse Through the Forest
Author: Virgil Miedema
Publisher: Amur Maple Books, 2002
Binding: Hardcover, 210 pages

One wishes many more such books existed, covering all the hillstations in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Full of excellent photographs by Craddock, Burke, Thomas Winter, as well as color engravings and postcards of the biggest of the Raj hillstations in Pakistan, the entire work is tasteful and informative.Read more

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