Under Indian Skies – 19th Century Photographs from a Private Collection

‘Under Indian Skies’ offers a rare first-hand impression of 19th-century India seen through the lens of mainly Western photographers.

The book takes us from the early days of photography, shortly before 1850, up to around 1900 by which time the medium had become well-established in the Indian subcontinent. With its grand architecture, exotic landscapes and rich diversity of peoples and cultures, India provided photographers with stunning images of magnificent Islamic palaces, mosques and sepulchral monuments. The camera also recorded the people of India, from princes, maharajas and warriors in all their glory, to the bustling street life of craftsmen, traders and entertainers.

The book also includes examples of some of the earliest documentary photographs of conflict in India. Images of death and destruction paint a stark picture of the 1857-58 Uprising against British rule and the horrors of war.

‘Under Indian Skies’ presents a stirring and kaleidoscopic picture of an India that has now largely disappeared. In addition to eighty-three selected photographs from a private collection, the book includes an overview of the artistic and technical history and development of photography in India.

The author is the British photographic historian John Falconer, who was for many years head of the British Library’s collections of photographs from India and the Orient. He is one of the world’s leading experts in this field and has written several books on early Indian photography.