Yore, in B&W

Nearly two centuries ago, one of Europe’s well-known commercial photographers arrived in India. Samuel Bourne brought with him world class photography equipment and set up a studio in Shimla in 1863 along with his associate William Howard, who left in due course of time. Bourne was then joined by Charles Shepherd and together they went on to shape what came to be known as the world’s oldest photography studio in Kolkata. (This studio was opened by Howard in 1840.) While the Shimla studio closed in 1910, the Kolkata studio shut shop recently, 176 years after it came into being. According to reports, the owners accepted that they couldn’t keep pace with the changing technology.

According to a spokesperson from Tasveer Arts Gallery, which organised an exhibition of Bourne & Shepherd’s works last month, Bourne travelled the subcontinent widely — producing more than 2,000 negatives, including some of the finest 19th century travel photography. These also include some of the earliest documented photos of various places in Himachal, then in Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir. While the British Library, the UK, has a huge collection of their travel photos, Panjab Digital Library has digitised around 200 photographs by Bourne. Davinder Pal Singh, co-founder of PDL, says, “Our collection includes many Sikhs, who remain unidentified. It is a task in itself to study these pictures and trace these people and their families.” — Sarika Sharma