Photography in the British Colonies

By Adrienne

Shortly after the invention of photography and the daguerrotype, photography made its way as a new technology into the British Colonies. Previously, images of the Imperial lands were rendered by artists in sketches and paintings providing a visual semblence to real life, yet the introduction of photography lent to an ease and effective means of documenting the "reality" of the British Empire, which was unprecedented.

The British documentation of India, and Burma began in the 1840's headed by the likes of Captain Thomas Biggs, a british  official  from the East India Company who became in charge of the visual archaeological recording of Indian temples and holy sites. Followed by Captain Linnaeus Tripe of the Madras Residency, Biggs and Tripe worked to photograph Indian architecture and landscapes, emphasizing the other worldliness of the temple studded eastern lands.

The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 represents an important shift in the role photography played as a documentarian device in the colonies. Revolt and the uprising of the Indian people, against the powers of the East India company led to extreme casualties, and an ultimate defeat of the Indian people. As the British Crown replaced the East India Company in the rule of India, a new narrative emerged in the visual representation of the colonized peoples which had previously been omitted. Italian photographer Felice Beato, known for his works from Japan, and Jerusalem, is most prominently regarded for his photographs of the Sepoy Rebellion. His photographs depict the gruesome hangings of Indian subjects as well as the immense casualties and destruction the rebellion produced. Yet his photos were not actually taken during the rebellion, but rather he constructed his imagined images of the rebellion as a means of propagating a specific visual narrative of the events, of which were circulated and dispersed throughout the western world. These photos bring into question the validity and objective quality of the photographic image, as well as the fallible nature of the visual consumer. Following Beato's work, and the corporeal elements of a failed Indian rebellion, new emphasis on subjects emerged in the realm of photography, leading away from images of pure natural sublime, and giving fruit to images incorporating people, hunted animals, and the riches acquired by the British Crown in India.