Under Indian Skies

‘Under Indian Skies’ is the book behind the forthcoming exhibitionof the same name, which opens at The David Collection on 23 November 2018. The book — and the exhibition — offer a previouslyunknown, first-hand impression of 19th-century India, as seen throughthe eyes of primarily Western photographers.At the beginning of the 1850s photography made its breakthrough incolonial India. With its impressive architecture, exotic landscapes andmany different ethnic groups and cultures, the country offeredfantastic motifs. The Indian architecture with its magnificent Islamicpalaces and mausolea. Princes, maharajas, ministers and soldiersin all of their splendour. But also ordinary people and daily life:stone-cutters and woodcarvers, carpenters and dyers, daily life withthe elephants that bathe in the Ganges, cotton harvesters and gardeners, acrobats, snake charmers, dancers, musicians and religiousprocessions."Under Indian Skies" presents a riveting, kaleidoscopic picture of anIndia that for the most part has disappeared today. Some monumentsare still standing and one might still see similar scenes there, but thepresent infrastructure and political circumstances are completelydifferent to that time.In addition to the presentation of eighty-three selected photographs,the book contains two essays, on the history of photography in Indiaand early photographic processes respectively.John Falconer is a British historian of photography, who for manyyears was responsible for the photography collection at the BritishLibrary’s Indian and Oriental departments. He has written manybooks on early Indian photography and is one of the world’s leadingspecialists in this area.