This paper reviews the work of two photographers of Lucknow: Ahmad Ali Khan (active 1850S–1862) and Abbas Ali (active late 1860s–c.l880). Both photographers recorded the people and places of the city. Khan, closely connected to the Awadhi royal family, documented the architecture of the city before and after the 1857 Uprising. He also made portraits of members of the royal family and of residents of the European community in Lucknow. Abbas Ali published The Lucknow Album(1874), a volume of fifty architectural photographs. Ali's other photography concerned the taluqdars of Awadh and the nautch women of Lucknow. Situating the work of Khan and Ali within a complex history of cultural exchange, the author considers their photography as the visual representation of attitudes towards the contested spaces of the city.