As a self-taught photographer Samuel Bourne has given the world a view of India that is as prolific and beautiful. His photographs are an example of the true photography artistry and the photos remain a gem even in this time. The history of the mutiny in India against the British dominance is captured in a way of contrast between the old and the new. Bourne is centered at the period of disruption in the Indian lifestyle and portrays both the good and the racially charged emotions of the times. Bourne shot his photographs in the 1850 and 1860’s so he found that the images also conveyed the new attitude of the British toward India along with the new and changing attitude of the Indians to the British . Documentary photography is a field close to the photos of Samuel Bourne as he puts so much emotion into the landscapes scenes that this classification bears only partially to him.
Samuel Bourne was a photographer in England first before he opened the studio in Simla, India. From this office location he planned and carried out three very successful photographic journeys to the Himalayas. The photographers were so unique in quality and photographic expertise that the British Journal of Photography featured him in their magazine in 1870. His photograph of the crossing in the Himalayas was exceptional as the journey itself had to be. After many near fatalities the pictures tell of a harrowing journey not just for Samuel Bourne but for the over eighty porters that he had with him. Bourne left India in 1870 with about 2,500 photos.
Samuel Bourne gave us many of the treasured views of India in the times and this quote sums up the view of India:
Like the photographic image, the playing of an old hit song or the reading of letters written long ago also conjures up a new a disintegrate unity. This ghost like reality is unredeemed, It consists of elements in space whose configuration is as far from necessary that one could not just as easily imagine a different organization of these elements. Those things once clung to us like our skin and this is how property still clings to us today. Nothing of these contain us, and the photograph gathers fragments around a nothing, Siegfried Krause, “Photography”
Women in India
Samuel Bourne through his vision gave the world a special advantage in the views of the women of India. His unique style captured for posterity the faces and lifestyle that might otherwise have been lost. In the nineteenth century households of Rajput rulers observed a custom of purdah from the fifteenth century. As a practice of the mostly upper class, the purdaj controlled the actions of women and men as it conditioned a religious practice that separated the two genders. Physical segregation is a part of purdaj as is the covering of women. Walls screens and curtain were used to separate the men and the women and also women form other members of the family such as her mother in law who had a higher class in the family. Because of the segregation and the covering of the women most Indian women are depicted as the same women. She was nameless and exhibited features of all Indian women of the time so that she was practically in undisguisable.
Purdaj is also known as zenana and English women felt that these were deplorable conditions for women. The women of the zenana were often unclean and misrepresented as a sexual object and nothing more. Through British led movements, the zenana was helped to be more representative of the rights of women in regard to hygiene, dress and education. The harem as it came to be known, needed to be replaced to duplicate the British home thought the British women and efforts were underway to change the native Indian harem women. Bourne, himself was British so his outlook was colored by his own upbringing. For the women of India the times of the colonization let many English women wanting to change their lives to be more like theirs. The women are not happy with the harem like atmosphere surrounding the women in India
The second half of the 1800’s brought a shift in the culture. Much was written about the harem and the treatment of women in India in the British press. The women of India were called the native women and the English press was implicit of the sensuality that the women had versus the strict and Victorian woman of England, The images though of the Indian women were definitely imbued with pictures of her and her sensuality. The covered face women were looked as a gender representation of oppression. These gender representations raised the consciousness of British women and all attempts to removes the “Indianization” of Indian women were seen as a desired social reform.
Emotion is often a component of a revelation and since Samuel Bourne was a photographer the emotions that his photographs elicited are powerful. Bourne did more landscapes but some of his pictures of Indian women at the time were done in his studio in Simla.It was in this context that Sam Bourne began his photography career. The views of Indian women were now being depicted as an ambiguity in the view of many. The zenana was apparently getting a new look due to the efforts of the British women and some of the old ways were changing. Bourne was introduced to the culture of India at this time period of transition and chose to spend more time photographing the landscapes and temples.
The Taj Mahal is known as the most beautiful structure in the world in India. It was built as a mausoleum for the King’s wife. Its white marble building materials and 42 acre garden remains as beautiful today as it was when first photographed by Samuel Bourne in 1860.
1 Taj Mahal by Samuel Bourne 1860
The Tanjore
This temple was of particular interest to Sam Bourne. The big Temple was part of the history of the Thanjavur and the keeper of its arts and crafts, and religion. Bourne was on tour in India in 1869 and took photos of the Tanjore. The best of them is the town’s three main streets. The Taj Mahal has an interesting story about the ancient temple as it is not a Islamic mausoleum but an ancient Shiva Temple. The Taj Mahal should be viewed as a temple palace and not the tomb and this designation makes a huge difference in the perception of the people of the time. If the people of Britain only saw the Taj as a tomb or a mausoleum and not a glorious palace. For the British to understand the beauty of the palace, they must perceive the hundreds of rooms, its ruined defensive walls, and its many secret sealed chambers. Those chambers are not tombs but glorious rooms to be cherished by the people staying there. The most prominent feature of this beautiful palace is the trident (Trishul) pinnacle on the dome and the Hindu lettering on the exterior of the sanctum sanctorum. Taj Mahal is not a Muslim name and therefore cannot be considered a mausoleum. The British at the time of the late 1800’s mistakenly believed that the Taj pinnacle was an Islamic crescent. The star was believed to be a lighting conductor and it was established by the British. However the pinnacle is a Hindu metal sculpture made of a metal that is a non-rusting alloy. It could very well be a lightening defector. The pinnacle is the replica of the eastern courtyard where the significance because of the east is of special importance to the Hindus as the direction n which the sun raises. The pinnacle for the dome has the word “Allah” on it after the capture. The pinnacle figure on the ground does not has the word Allah.
A photograph taken by Sam Bourne is of a main street in Tanjore with three gopurams or small pagodas were taken in about 1869. Thanjavur was the capital city of Imperial Chola dynasty whose glory is reflected in more than 75 temples. The Brinhadishvara temple is perhaps the most famous. It is the greatest architectural achievement in the Chola time.
The Brinhadishvara temple is dedicated to Shiva and stands in the middle of the town and is the highest building. Poets have written about the folklore of the temple that it never cast a shadow as it is so tall. The poet, Vijay Kumar wrote a poem, “Does the Tanjore Big Temple Vimana cast a shadow? . Photographers such as Bourne however have photos of the shadow which proves the old myth false but it still remains a tale of the Tanjore.
3Great Pagoda and Stone Bull Tanjore, by Samuel Bourne 1860's
Two photographs are particularly interesting as a study in the life and times of India in the 1860’s/ The Tanjora was a place for religion and culture. In the photographs there is a great deal to be learned by the imaginative landscapes of imperial culture. Real subjects add to the authenticity but they are captured as an image within a frame. In India as in most other countries the role of photography was to inform as well as offer enjoyment. The photographer would inform others as to the exploration and domestication of foreign landscapes. The imperial warfare that takes place is a type of hunting with a camera. The photos of Bourne were also used to teach the school children in Britain about the Indian culture and lifestyle.
Photographic Journeys in the Himalayas is a book written by Samuel Bourne about his favorite mountains as he photographed them in 1863-1866. An editorial was written by Hugh Rayner. In the editorial, Rayner called Samuel Borne the most influential landscape and architectural photographer active in India during the nineteenth century. This book also collects for the first time the most important photographic writings especially the letters that he wrote to the British Journal of Photography. This work is the first time that all of his collections are in one place. Many of the photographs in this book came from his third trip lasting six months.
Another author, Sarah MacDonald, wrote about her adventures in following the trails of Samuel Bourne. She relates to the photographic works that he gave posterity as an individual who not only photographed the Himalayas but also described them in graphic prose. As far as his photography he chose to use the wet collodion process. This was an involved process that required coating, sensitizing and exposing a glass plate at the site. He also was known for using a 12x10 plate which was larger than in the most of the photographers used at the time. It must have been very hard to deal with this large format equipment in the field but it is probably the reason that the prints are so detailed and clear. In the book, though, he does talk about the difficulties of setting up a darkroom in the field as conditions were not ideal. Trays and chemicals had to the set up in tents. The cold was a factor. It is difficult to imagine working with frozen icicle chemicals and equipment.
5 Vishnu Pud and Other Templess
Representational Revolution
India by the middle and end of the nineteenth century was on a path of change. As shown in the above photos the quiet undisturbed Indian life is going to change. The Tibetan monks offered a quiet life as opposed to the life that England wants to offer the people of India. The photos of Samuel Bourne may have contributed to a disruption in the old ways in India. He presented the land for the British to view as a beautiful and inviting place. The photos of the time show a sophisticated country with a disturbance that enhanced the lives of the people in India and those studying the country “The idealism of the picturesque that generally inflected Bourne’s vision of India was complicit in the production of a deceptively benign representation of India as a relatively safe and exotically scenic land for favorable cultural and commercial exploit”. Bourne in his phots depicts the character of the revolution and the effects of it on the people.
The Indian formulation of the visual identity specific to Indian and British photography is that the visual identity is specific to modernizing the culture of studio photography. This includes the many portraits of the upper class in the country of India. The photography was done in what the British felt was an over painted studio. The Indian studio had much color to it and the British did not particularly enjoy that.
The view of the Indian woman in the studio shot was quite different from those that the Victorian women were imaging. The studio shot was posed to show the high class of the woman. She is dressed in regalia of the time and very aristocratic obviously not the women of the harem. This woman may have a husband who is wealthy and has a higher class in the class structure of India at the time. The burka is present but since she is married it is off her face and serves as an adornment. The British attempts to colonize the area added to the gender problems of women. And as the women became the focus of the British reform, the power of the women in the government began to make progress. Women were seen as more than a sexual object. The upper class women lead the movement, because although they were not part of the harem their husbands enjoyed multiple sex partners.
Since Bourne was not Indian himself some of the critiques of his work mark him as a Westerner trying to give an impression of India. He was not a part of the revolution or the Indian culture and was treated as an outsider . Bourne however took greater pleasure in the landscapes than in the political climate of the time. As far as politics went Bourne offered a realistic view of the times. What happened in the halls of Parliament was not if his concern. In his attempts to represent the area Bourne’s greatest passion was the landscapes and was known to take three of four Indian men with him on outings to carry all of his photography equipment. Of course since the infrastructure was not in place it must have been quite a sight. The landscapes that gave Bourne a great deal of notoriety is that of the Himalayas. One can only image the caravan and special needs that he had in getting to areas not previously photographer. It speaks to the love that Bourne had not only for the art of photography but also for his love of the Himalayas.
This terrain looks very difficult to travel to begin with let alone in a caravan. Also courage has to be given to the men who took the trip with Bourne as they were also in danger through such uncharted territory. In the photo if you look very hard there are two men who served as helpers or coolies as they were called at the time. They appear so small and insignificant. But in reality the time and effort of these men points to the bravery and will power of the Indian people. The men needed to hike out to the stop, stand for hours while the equipment was prepared for the shot. The weather had to make this a very cold place to work when compared to the heat in the city.
7 Manirung Pass 1866 Courtesy of Arthur Ollman
In this photo from the same expedition the men are more visible. Again the strength of character of these devoted coolies is astounding. One thing to notice though is that unlike most landscape photographers, Bourne makes no attempt to show the men as part of the land. They are not working it or using it for any apparent reason. This photo was not taken by Bourne but does show his coolies on the trek to a higher mountain in the Alps. The carrying of his equipment does not come through so much though in this photo either but that is the need of all of those people. These photos presented an orderly view of India as a beautiful mountain domain. The images are very European in composition and structure. This representational strategy speaks to the power of the colonizers to dominant the land.
Conclusion
Samuel Bourne was a British photographer who captured the heart and lives of the beautiful land of India. He captured it in such a way as to leave the India people wondering about their country but by impressing the British in the land that they owned. The revolution invokes changes in the lifestyles of the e Indian people especially the women. However the landscape photography of Samuel Bourne is as striking as ever in the beautiful landscapes of the Himalayas and are as timeless as the mountains themselves. He also continued to market and be his own publicist.
References
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