Two British photographers and beautiful captures of Indian visual culture. An exhibition titled ‘Figures in Time: Bourne & Shepherd’ features some celebrated works by the early European commercial photographers Charles Shepherd and Samuel Bourne and the Bourne and Shepherd studio.
Started by Charles and Samuel in 1866, the Bourne and Shepherd studio was set up in Calcutta and continues operations till this day. The exhibition showcases some extremely rare photographs of Victorian India by the renowned photographers.
“The selected images present the wide range of subjects that were captured by Samuel, Charles and their studio — whether topographical landscapes, architectural studies, event documentation or posed portraits,” shares Nathaniel Gaskell, curator of the show.
Samuel, a former banker, was known for his prolific ‘picturesque’ tradition. His images of the Himalayas, the Ganges plains, Haridwar and Lucknow created spectacular shots in the process. The vast collection — estimated to be about 2,200 pictures of India — is valuable for its content and historic import. Talking about the idea behind the exhibition Nathaniel says, “Part of the idea behind the exhibition was just to introduce Bourne and Shepherd to a contemporary audience. Photography is such a ubiquitous medium today, but few people actually stop to think who the pioneers of the medium were, or its significance in the history of visual culture in the country. Another aspect in the curatorial process was to identify images with hidden details that would be particularly interesting when magnified, for the enlarged reproductions.”
By exhibiting select enlarged modern reprints in conjunction with the vintage photographs, the exhibit provides an insight into the way Samuel took his pictures. Nathaniel says, “By looking at the details, and close-ups of some of the figures who populated Samuel’s photographs, some over 150 years old, we see a whole new side to Samuel, and I think this is what makes this particular show important. There’s something strangely intimate and almost voyeuristic about looking at figures in a landscape, or in a street scene, who up until now had just appeared as small dots or outlines, by enlarging and digitally enhancing the images, we can now see their expressions, and we get sucked into their world.”
The juxtaposition of vintage photographs and modern reprints in this exhibition also reflects the development of photographic technology in the last 150 years. “Our present day ability to produce images with such rapid ease, in many ways, serves to accentuate the difficult physical circumstances under which these photographs were originally produced,” he points out.
In many ways, the exhibit captures the beauty of 19th century photography and gives a chance to the viewers to peek into a scene that unfolded so long ago. “The photographs provide historical documents and records relating to the topographical spectrum of India. The beauty of their work is not the events per se, but in evoking a certain time through careful compositions — street scenes and sweeping landscapes — all of which are lost today,” he concludes.
