If you’re a millennial and reading this article, you probably haven’t often considered a moment in time when the culture and landscape of India wasn’t as widely captured or expressed through the medium of photography, as it is today. We know we haven’t, even as we put together endless compilations of instagram-follow worthy young photographers or photojournalists from the subcontinent's most powerful projects even as we simultaneously snap up and share what we're eating for lunch. The camera, however, only reached India in 1855 and it marked the beginning of a whole new era. 8_Bijawar
The New Medium: Photography in India 1855-1930
John Murray's image of the Pearl Mosque in Agra
the new medium,
Maharaja Holkar's wedding circa 1930. Bubbar says of the royal king, "“Holkar was ahead of the game; a truly 20th century guy. He wanted to create his entire own modern identity, so he surrounded himself with all the newest things and finest people.”
Maharaja Bundi
Princes by Raja Deen Dayal
Madura in the early 19th century.
The Golden Temple.
[If you happen to be in London, you can catch this exhibition till the 10th of July at Number 33 on Mayfair's Cork Street.]
All images from the exhibition The New Medium: Photography in India 1855-1930, courtesy Prahlad Bubbar