how did Europeans photographers create the images of India
Answers
Answer:
They began producing pictures which became widely popular in Europe and helped shape Western perceptions of India. European artists brought with them the idea of realism. ... European artists also brought with them the technique of oil painting – a technique with which Indian artists were not very familiar
Explanation:
Answer:
The New Medium is a neat survey of the birth and rise of photography as a major art form in the subcontinent. Twenty-five photographs are ordered chronologically around the bright, airy rooms of the gallery, each one chosen to reflect a distinct decisive moment in Indian photographic history.
Driven by Bubbar’s background in art history, his recognition of context binds the project together as the beginnings of a technological and artistic revolution in the context of one distinct and, in itself, rapidly evolving culture.
In the middle of the 19th century, photography took over from painting as the new mode of representing the world – hence the name, The New Medium.
The exhibition frames an era in which the diverse customs of India – the temples, animals and people – could all be experienced with objective photographic clarity for the very first time, above and beyond the limits of any painter’s eye.
The exhibition begins with landscape shots of famous architecture – the Taj Mahal, Golden Temple, et al – commissioned by the East India Company when the camera first arrived on Indian shores in the mid-nineteenth century. In one image, taken by John Murray after the Indian rebellion in 1857, a pyramid of cannonballs are piled high in front of the Pearl mosque in Agra, reflecting a period of reinvigorated British colonial dominance.
As the practice of photography evolved, a contrasting style developed alongside the predominantly European influence on the art form. This turn is most notable in the work of Raja Deen Dayal, India’s most celebrated 19th-century photographer, whose appointment as court photographer to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad allowed him unique access to the inner circles of aristocratic life.
“British photographers had preconceived ideas about what constituted a beautiful landscape or portrait,” Bubbar tells BJP. “But Dayal didn’t have the same conditioning. This made his work distinct. He was the pre-eminent Indian photographer.”
One of Dayal’s portraits, taken in 1882, depicts the Maharaja of Bijawar sitting cross-legged, surrounded by servants. This moment – what Bubbar calls “the great encounter” – that would have had unprecedented significance for its subjects, for they are traditional leaders from remote parts of India, facing the long exposure of an original camera for the first time in their lives.
Juxtaposing these portraits with more modern equivalents is a core achievement of The New Medium. After the turn of the 20th century, an increasingly commercial demand for portrait photography led to the opening of studios in major Indian cities. This translated into different stylistic conventions, such as the use of elaborate, Victorian-style indoor props – ornate wooden stools, painted curtain drapes – in an attempt to emulate a European environment.
The biggest contrast to Dayal’s early portraits is Bubbar’s favourite image of the collection: American photographer Man Ray’s intimate photograph of Maharaja Holkar of Indore, dressed in a suit and tie, circa 1930. He says: “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.”
Explanation: