Photography was first used in India in 1840, few months after it was used in Europe. Within a few years, amateurs, professionals, and enthusiasts of science took to it.
Euro-American photographers such as William J. Johnson, Bourne and Shepherd, Herzog and Higgins, had sprawling photograph businesses and defined the early photographic landscape of the Indian subcontinent. The administrations of the colonial government and princely states began using photography to document the activities of the state. Official visits of dignitaries were widely photographed, souvenirs were crafted from the images, and sold at high prices. Photographs as postcards were circulated around the world.
Raja Deen Dayal is perhaps the only widely known name among the early photographers from India.
Deen Dayal had graduated from Thomason Civil Engineering College, Roorkie, as a draughtsman and began his career in the Public Works Department of Central India Agency in Indore. He was trained in drawing isometric and perspective views as a draughtsman, a skill which he used to hone his vision in photography. He used scaling to bring the height of a monument alive in a picture. For instance, Deen Dayal would illustrate the grandness of a monument by framing a person, or animal in front of it.
The patronage of the princely state of Indore was very important in his setting up a studio in 1875, and in getting him access to high-ranking people to photograph. After Indore, Deen Dayal moved to Hyderabad, the largest and the richest princely state in India.
Under the patronage of the Nizam, he started a studio in Secunderabad and widely photographed the elite and everyday life of the princely state. While the Euro-American photographers used colonial networks to develop their photography business, for the local photographers, the princely and elite patronage (including that of the European elite) was central to building their business.
However, Deen Dayal was not the only important early photographer of India.
Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao Jadhav, a photographer duo, grew out the vacuum created by Deen Dayal’s move from Indore to Hyderabad. They were the state photographers of Indore. Their studio was started in 1888. Deen Dayal had slowly reduced focus on Indore when he opened a branch of his studio in Secunderabad in 1889. However, there was huge demand for photography in Indore and central India nonetheless. It is this demand that Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao were addressing.
Their career gives a glimpse into how photography worked within the princely patronage system. Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao had a very close relationship with Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar III. Their mother had nursed him. Tukoji Rao patronised them, and encouraged them to hone their craft. He took them on a tour to Europe where they even gave a lecture on photography.
Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar -III hunting photograph at Barwaha jungle by Ramchandra Rao, Pratap Rao, circa 1915. From the collection of Zafar Ansari, Museum of Indore.
Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao’s prolific practice included documenting the official events of Indore state, clicking official portraits of rulers and the elite, covering sporting and hunting events, making family portraits, individual portraits, group photographs, photographing religious processions, landscapes and monuments, and so on.
There are two distinct features of the photography of Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao, they worked in both artist mode and mass production mode. As artists, they focused on perfecting the image, and often created artistic hand-painted portraits for their clients. Among their paintings was an image of Ahilya Bai Holkar, the queen of Indore. In a self-portrait Pratap Rao represents himself as an artist, standing by the easel.
As mass-producing photographers, they focused on scale and replication. It is said that they had over 150 staff employed in their studio at the peak of its popularity. When the Indore Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II decided to have his official portrait installed in all the government buildings and schools, it was Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao who produced the photograph is large numbers. Their studio-front displayed all their products – portraits and souvenirs – inviting prospective clients to choose from them. They served multiple princely states of central India.
Principal residence of Holkar dynasty the Royal Palace of Indore Rajwada photograph taken by Ramchandra Rao, Pratap Rao in the year 1905. From the collection of Zafar Ansari Museum of Indore
The city of Indore was very prosperous because of opium trade. It was a hub through which opium travelled from the farmers in central India to China. The traders and merchants patronised the art of photography with their surplus wealth. They would get their portraits clicked displaying their wealth, and latest technical possessions such as radios, alarm clocks, etc. They would get themselves photographed in their offices, intending to tell the story of their businesses. In some photographs, merchants dressed up in Western dress, suit, and shoes. In these images they were consciously presenting themselves as modern. Photography gave people a chance to imagine themselves afresh, helped them fashion themselves. This idea of representing themselves as modern permeated from the rulers to the subjects.
Indore Residency boating club photograph by Ramchandra Rao, Pratap Rao, 1922. From the collection of Zafar Ansari Museum of Indore.
Getting a portrait from the Ramchandra Rao-Pratap Rao Studio was aspirational. Whenever someone achieved something remarkable, they would get a portrait done. Lata Mangeshkar, who was also from Indore got her early professional photographs done by Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao.
Lata Mangeshkar’s first photograph session at Indore by Ramchandra Rao Pratap Rao. From the collection of Zafar Ansari Museum of Indore
Many prominent artists such as D.D. Deolalikar who started the Indore school of art, and the famous painter M.F. Hussain are said to have worked in the studio of Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao, as photograph painters in their early days. Legend has it that M.F. Hussain’s grandfather had wanted him to train as a photographer under Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao and wished that one day he would be as successful as them. Another legend also has it that Dadasaheb Phalke, who is considered to be pioneer of Indian cinema, learnt trick photography from Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao. Their techniques helped him in making mythological films.
Ramchandra Rao and Pratap Rao were, in fact, known for sharpness of image. Using the skylight in the studio and a mirror they were known to be able to capture the shoe shine on a photograph. Their camera, imported from Britain, had a wide angle lens which could capture large areas on a photograph. This was reflected in the images of processions they captured.
By limiting early photographic history to Deen Dayal, we do not just lose astonishing photographic work, but also the interconnected histories of the medium and its links to the later periods.
Photographs of Ramchandra Rao, Pratap Rao and other early photographers can be seen in the upcoming exhibition, Chitramahal: Princely Encounters with Photography and Film at Harkat Studios, Mumbai from August 9 to 19, 2024, and Ark Studios, Vadodara, September 30 to October 4, 2024.
Zafar Ansari is a public historian of Indore and has been building a museum for the city.
C. Yamini Krishna works on film history and urban history.
This work is done as a part of the foundation project implemented by India Foundation for the arts, made possible by BNP Paribas. The Vadodara exhibition is supported by the Ark Foundation for the Arts.
