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| Photographs |
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| Lithographs | Postcards I/II/III/IV | Engravings |
Raj Images of India and Pakistan (634) |
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The abundance of visual media available in the 21st century makes earlier eras seem visually impoverished. Actually, there were always many kinds of images available, from miniatures and paintings to icons and representations of deities. Images had more authority.
What has changed is the cheap mass reproduction and distribution of single images. This first happened in the 19th century. Even before the invention of photography in 1839, print techniques like lithography and wood engraving had begun to make copies in black-and-white and color economically viable on a large scale. The Internet, which has brought the cost of reproduction to near zero, is an extension of this trend. This doorway explores early Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan photographs, as well as hundreds of postcards from 1900-1947. It includes many French, Indian, German and British lithographs of the subcontinent.A selection of wood engravings and text from the mid to late 19th century offer unusual slices of history. Visit our new site on photography in India during the British Raj, photoraj.com, opened in 2009. |