Sean Rocha

Indian studio portraits, 20th century

Perhaps because it was photography that brought me to India last month, I spent a lot of time trolling the markets looking for old studio portraits.  I collect these all over the world but India has an especially rich 20th century (and earlier) tradition of studio photography, among them famous studios like Herzog + Higgins in Mhow and Hormusjee in Bombay.  There is an avid professional trade in portraits of the great and the good — from infancy, the life of nearly every maharaja was well documented by official sittings — but in the markets it is still possible to find portraits of more ordinary citizens that are of no especial material value but are compelling nonetheless.

I found the portrait above in Hauz Khas village in Delhi and it is captioned (in English) “Red Fort Dated 6th October 1948,” presumably referring to the fort in old Delhi.  I can’t read the captions on the two portraits below so, Indian readers, if you have a moment send me an email or leave a comment telling me more about them.

Thanks to an update from a reader in India named Sweta who translated the Gujarati photo label above, it reads: Puneet Art Studio, Hawai Chowk, Jamnagar [in Gujarat]

And here, to give a flavor of the enterprise, is a photograph I found online of the Herzog + Higgins studio in Mhow in the late-19th century.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at 11:51 am. It is filed under Found Object and tagged with Bombay, Delhi, India, photography, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.