In the 19th century, photography and colonial ethnography were tools of British governance on the subcontinent. Colonial officers were asked to submit photographs on various subjects across India. Images of people, place and space was seen as useful surveillance documentation to observe, understand and control native communities. Eugene Clutterbuck Impey (1830-1904) arrived in India in 1851 and lived there until his retirement in 1878. He served as political agent at different posts across the country. The Eastern Art archives include over 250 negatives and photographs of Impeys images of people, architectural sites, and landscapes.
Foreword 7
Xa Sturgis
Foreword 9
Richard Ovenden
Acknowledgements 10
Colonial Views of India 13
Mallica Kumbera Landrus
Political Agency 37
Geoffrey Batchen
Picturesque Views and Architectural Documentation 47
Julia A. B. Hegewald
Alwar and Jodhpur 65
Giles Tillotson
Mount Abu and Shimla 85
Dane Kennedy
Performing Community/Performing Empire 105
Radhica Ganapathy
Portraying People 113
Marwa Ahmed
Captive Cats 131
Nayanika Mathur
Cracking India: Fragile Archaeological Photographs 141
Aparna Kumar
Construction of Tradition 149
Chaitanya Sambrani
Observation of a Photographers Process 157
Tim Pearse
Notes 168
Bibliography 173
Contributors 176
Professor Mallica Kumbera Landrus is Keeper of the Eastern Art Department in the Ashmolean Museum, where the collections span more than 5,000 years of cultural and artistic development, from across Asia and parts of Africa. Her curatorial responsibilities are mainly in Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art.
