Painted Photographs: Coloured Portraiture in India

by Ebrahim Alkazi, Alkazi Collection of Photography

This volume explores the development of the embellished image in India through the painted photograph, a genre that marks a significant chapter in the history of Indian photography.

Genres: Photography

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Vinayak Hegde · Rating 3 out of 5]

In late 19th Century, photography started proliferating in India. Now India is a country with rich painting tradition - miniature and otherwise. The early patrons of photography were the royal kings and nobility of princely states. This overlapped significantly with their patronage of painting and portraiture. Photography was a nascent art with good reproduction of features but initially only in black and white. So to get over this shortcoming of photographs they started being painted over - uniting the best of both worlds - the artistry and colors of the artists and the faithful reproduction of the photographs. This was a transitionary era between the birth and adoption of photography and use of painting for royal photographs. This book looks at this rich tradition of painted photographs (from the Alkazi collection) that have been lost to history while also inadvertently chronicling the demise of painting as a means of reproduction and the fast adoption of photography in the last 19th century and early 20th Century in India.