From the 1850s onwards, photography was a dynamic affair in colonial India. Some Photographic Societies debated and exhibited photographs by their members; there were a few colleges that started offering courses on photography. The British Government became keen on the usage of photography as an objective documentation tool for the Empire. But have you even wondered how women fit into this equation? Were there women who also photographed? Who were the women who were being photographed before photography became more accessible? How did photographing women crossroads with British ideologies about India and the traditions that Indian royal families followed in the 19th century?
Women Who Photographed:
By the time photography came to India in the 1840s, the British Government had already developed many ideologies to justify their rule over the subcontinent- this included a need to ‘civilize’ India, which was seen as a ‘dark’ and ‘backward’ land riddled with ‘primitive’ traditions. Part of the civilizing mission included a need to extensively document and record the land, people, and Indian traditions the British planned to eradicate. Photography fits right into this puzzle. Early historians argued that the British perceived photography as an objective method of documentation that could not be biased.
It is suggested that the earliest surviving photographic images from India are most likely a group of 23 salt-fixed calotypes and 3 photograms, probably made by a female photographer in Uttar Pradesh between 1843 and 1845! The Photographic Society of Bengal, which opened in 1856, had about 88 members, including 4 women by 1857. This number would only increase.
So, there were female photographers in the 1850s, but who were they? Regrettably, there is no evidence of any Indian female photographers from that time. The handful of female photographers who have been discovered in recent times were British, and they were either wives of military officers or government officials. This involves women like Harriet Tytler, Lady Hariot Dufferin, and Lady Charlotte Canning, the Viscountess. One of the most well-known female photographers in 19th-century India was Julia Margaret Cameron, whose life and photography have been widely researched in the last few decades.
Early photographic equipment was expensive, and we can deduce that only royal families may have had access to cameras. Royal and noble women in India also strictly observed ‘purdah’ (behind the veil), where they were not allowed to reveal their faces to anyone except their husbands and immediate families. Photography was, hence, also prohibited. Many of these women, especially those of royal families, resided in the ‘zenana’ (the women’s quarters), where no man except the king was allowed. A popular hypothesis amongst historians is that there were female photographers who photographed women observing purdah, as they had access to these spaces where men were not allowed. These photographs may have been circulated among the women of the zenana, but were not revealed to the public.
Women Who Were Photographed:
Rules of seclusion for Indian women, like purdah and zenana, became a prominent area of contestation amongst the British because Indian women were stereotyped as being ‘lustful’, ‘cunning’, and ‘impure’. The same stereotypes were also used for royal court dancers, singers, and entertainers. These were women who perfected a variety of performing arts and were highly regarded in the courts where they performed. Under the British, these women became synonymous with the title ‘Nautch girls’ (dancing girls), and it was widely believed that they were engaging in prostitution. The civilizing mission involved making Indian women ‘visible’, removing purdah, and making sure that courtesans were stripped of their titles.
In a time when a woman’s body and vicinity became a source of tension, photography acted differently! While it was a tool of truth for the British, it also helped de-villainize these derogatory ideas about women. Between the 1850s and 1880s, many royal women were photographed by men, lifting the veil and making them ‘visible’ for the first time.
In Awadh, the begums of the Nawab were photographed by foreigners like Joseph Fayrer and native photographers like Ahmed Ali Khan. In 1862, photographer James Waterhouse photographed Secunder Begum of Bhopal, along with her daughter, granddaughter, and Madame Doolan (the Christian member of the household), in a variety of poses and native costumes. The Begum was intensely pro-British, and she may have participated as a way to assert her power. Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II of Jaipur also took photographic portraits of the women of his palace’s zenana between the 1860s and 1870s. Ram Singh was aware of the British debates about the ‘depraved and dirty’ zenana, where ‘lustful’ women resided. He used his position as the king to access the secluded area to photograph the women. The results were… not what the British would have wanted to see. Ram Singh’s photographs showed the women sitting with grace, covered in ornate jewellery and embroidered fabrics. Far from being sick and deviant, these were dignified and civilized women who maintained and worked within the power structures of the kingdom.
Beauties of Lucknow by Darogha Abbas Ali
In the history of photography in India, Darogha Abbas Ali is a well-known name. A municipal engineer who attended the Thomason Civil Engineering College of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee), Ali extensively photographed the royal families, the nobility, and the landscape of Lucknow between the 1860s and 1880s. His oeuvre consists of three well-known photographic albums, one of which is called ‘Beauties of Lucknow’.
The Beauties of Lucknow is a series of 21 photographs of Indian dancers, singers, and entertainers from the court of Awadh taken in 1874. The subject of most of these portraits by Darogha Abbas Ali is a young Indian woman photographed in a studio, often standing in the foreground and leaning her elbow on a high-backed velvet chair, with hanging draperies framing the background. Some of the pictures diverge from this model, displaying a seated individual or group instead, and include other household members within the frame. All the women in All's work are dressed in traditional Indian attire and wear elaborate jewelry to match. In the 1850s, courtesans were a crucial part of the royal court of Lucknow. They held remarkable positions of prestige and renown, and were skilled in poetry, the art of music, and many diverse styles of dance. These distinguished women were referred to as 'tawa'if', and they played a significant role in moulding the artistic landscape of their era.
Ali’s method of photographing the courtesans is similar to how earlier royal and noble women were photographed, hence giving them the same dignity and status at the time when the British Government sought to demote and remove courtesans. But there are other subtle political references that Ali makes with this album.
The album was published in two languages- Urdu and English, complete with name titles for the photographs and an introduction to the album. Historians who have analysed both the versions have argued that the Beauties of Lucknow album was meant for an exclusive elite clientele. The introduction of both editions stated that the singers, dancers, and actresses photographed within were involved in the production of a popular play, ‘Indar Sabha’, which is attributed to the Lucknow-based poet Amanat Ali, dating to 1853. The play not only celebrates the literary and performing arts of Lucknow at its peak, but it is said that the last Nawab of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah, often enacted the role of King Indra in the drama. This is interesting because the Beauties of Lucknow album was made 18 years after the British captured Awadh and exiled the Nawab. The album can hence be seen as a way of circulating resilience and memory, as the Indian nobles who had access to this album could reminisce about a time when the city was famed for its extravagance and culture.
In the play, Lord Indra is surrounded by a group of fairies, or the women of the zenana. The Urdu introduction of the album refers to Lucknow as ‘Paristan’ (a land of fairies), where women of unearthly femininity reside. Pre-annexation Lucknow is hence imagined to be a paradise. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah also adopted this concept of ‘paristan’ by employing the word ‘pari’ (fairy) for the women he personally desired from the lower classes and courtesans’ quarters of the city, and they were enrolled in ‘pari-khanah’ (house of fairies), where music and dance were taught. In the Beauties of Lucknow album, some of the women are also shown in their stage costumes where they play fairies. This also helps absolve the courtesans from the derogatory view with which many British men and women looked at them.
One of the original albums of Beauties of Lucknow is held at Museo Camera, as part of the Indian Photo Archive Foundation archive.A selection from this book is also currently on display in Museo Camera’s exhibition ‘Touching Light: A Prelude to the Bicentennial of Photography 1827-2027’, on view until 1st October 2025. The exhibition celebrates and highlights the evolution of analog photography in India, spanning almost two centuries. The Museo shop also has a collection of rare books on the history of photography in India and embroidered cushions with prints of the Beauties of Lucknow!
To view these original prints and books, come visit Museo Camera!
