Themes in Early South Indian Commercial Photography

Abstract

While prior to the development of a commercial market for photography, portraiture had been the primary focus, it was demand from the market that led to various new themes that can be identified in the work of the commercial photographers in South India during the second half of the 19th century. The primary market was no longer made up of local residents but visitors who sought mementos of their visit, to remind them of places they had seen, views of the landscape through which they had passed, and the local people, so different in appearance and habit from citizens of their own countries. Photography also served to record events, such as the terrible famine in South India in 1876–77. The doyen of photographers in India was Samuel Bourne (1834–1912). He set a standard and style for all to follow, but paid just one visit to the south. Capt. Edmund Lyon (1825–91), on extended leave from the army, made an extensive photographic record of the historic buildings and sites of South India for the government. The leading commercial photographers of South India were the Nicholas Brothers with studios in Madras (now Chennai) and Ootacamund. They were joined by A.T.W. Penn (1849–1924) who ran their Ootacamund branch from 1865 to 1875 but then acquired it from them and started up under his own name.

Notes

1 Albert Thomas Watson Penn, but he always went by A.T.W. Penn professionally.

2 Theodor Klein, working under the direction of W.H.R. Rivers, took nearly all the photos for Rivers' famed study of the Todas in 1901–02; cf. Hockings (1992).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Penn

CHRISTOPHER PENN was born in 1937 and gained an MA in jurisprudence at Oxford, followed by an MBA at the Harvard Business School. After 21 years in industry and 12 more years in media, Penn began his career as an author. His principal work has been The Nicholas Brothers and A.T.W. Penn, Photographers of South India 1855–1885, published in London in 2014 and reviewed in Visual Anthropology, 28(5): 454–57. He now lives in Surrey, UK, with his wife and family. E-mail: [email protected]