PHOTOGRAPHY in the Panjab

Photography arrived in India in the 1840s and some of the most spectacular early images captured by the camera were of the architecture, people and landscape of the Panjab. Beautifully detailed photographs of the Golden Temple were taken by Felice Beato, an Italian-born photographer who travelled through India between 1857 and 1858.

A few years later, in 1864, Samuel Bourne, the most famous commercial photographer in India at the time, took photographs of Amritsar and Lahore which included Ranjit Singh's tomb, his marble pavilion, and Lahore Fort. While in Srinagar he captured this image of Colonel Alexander Gardner, known to have been in Ranjit Singh's court in 1831, dressed in a tartan suit and matching turban. The people of the Panjab, including Sikh soldiers, maharajas and Akalis were also frequently photographed.

See also The Akali Turban.