Photography was introduced to the sub-continent in the 1840s and spread through the region in the next seventy years. At our Online Talk #LensOnIndia, photography historian and collector Hugh Rayner covers the work of some of India’s earliest practitioners, both known and unknown, professional and amateur, including that of Dr John McCosh, Felice Beato, Dr Narayen Dajee, Hurrychund Chintamon, Samuel Bourne, John Saché, Capt. E. D. Lyon, Raja Deen Dayal, and others. In particular, he will cover the life and work of Samuel Bourne, one of the most famous photographers of mid nineteenth century India, and the co-founder of Bourne & Shepherd Studios.

About the speaker

Hugh Rayner is a travel photographer, bookseller, publisher and photographic historian. He is also a collector of and a dealer in vintage photographs of India & South Asia. He studied Photography in England in the early 1970s, before starting a career as a professional photographer, primarily working in the travel industry. Based in Bath, England, he has travelled literally around the world, over the past fifty years, and most regularly to India, Nepal & Tibet to fulfil a particular love of the Himalayan regions. He is a passionate collector of early Himalayan photography, and now also writes and lectures on the history of photography in India.