Seminars
Seminar 1
Camerawallah: A Century of Sikh Photographs (1849-1948)
Saturday, November 24, 2007
1:10 pm to 2:10 pm
Parmjit Singh explores the photographic record of the Anglo-Sikh encounter during the British Raj. The age of the development of photography in Punjab commenced on its annexation to British territories in 1849. The dramatic end of the kingdom created by the legendary Maharajah Ranjit Singh was documented in the first grainy shots of the Sikh people and their architecture in Lahore taken by an amateur military photographer, Dr John McCosh. Since then the history of the Sikhs has been played out in front of the camera's lens. McCosh heralded the first of the military photographers who went on to capture the Sikhs in the British Army. Early Victorian photographs of the Sikhs highlight attitudes connected with the British presence in India, indicating both the power of photography as a colonial tool of classification and appropriation. The photographic medium was later used for wartime propaganda and as an anthropological research tool. A unique opportunity to view images from a variety of collections including the National Army Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the British Library.
Location
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Glass Room
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C6