In a new exhibition, the featured images reflect Britain’s attempts to classify and curb the subcontinent’s population, but they also demonstrate the nobility of their subjects – and the futility of the task
A
t first, and without the context, someone looking at this collection of 150-year-old photographs of Indian men and women might think they were looking at compelling portraits. The faces are of individuals with piercing eyes and a striking presence.
But context changes everything. The images were taken by British colonialists as part of a great project of photographic ethnography, intended to classify and categorise their subjects.
They are the opposite of celebrating individuals. And Indians visiting an exhibition at Delhi art gallery (DAG), that accompanied the release of the book Typecasting: Photographing the Peoples of India 1855-1920, are able to see how the British enlisted photography as a tool to further the imperial project.
