The thesis is an examination of architectural photography produced in India during the period 1840 to 1901. The study raises a number of concerns that divide into two broad groups:
- The documentation of Indian architecture and the creation of an architectural history for India, looking specifically at the central role of James Fergusson
- The dissemination and interpretation of architectural photographs, looking at three groups of photographs that serve as case studies.
James Fergusson (1808-86) made extensive use of photography in his work. Fergusson's belief in the importance of photography influenced the documentation of Indian architecture and the writing of its history. Fergusson's methodology is examined alongside the work of Alexander Cunningham and their contemporaries working on Indian architecture.
The case studies address three specific groups of photographs: photographs of Lucknow; photographs of Vijayanagara, and the publication of the photographically illustrated book, Architecture in Dharwar and Mysore (London, 1866) and its two companion volumes. Specific issues addressed include the impact of historical events on the interpretation of photographs, such as the 1857 Uprising; the effect that photographic processes have on the appearance and interpretation of photography, and the different visual languages that emerge from different working contexts, such as official commissions on behalf of the Government or commercial imperatives.
This leads to an examination of photographs by Ahmad Ali Khan, Felice Beato, Samuel Bourne and J.E. Saché in Lucknow; by Alexander Greenlaw, William Pigou, Andrew Neill, E.D. Lyon, H.H. Cole and Lawrie & Co. in Vijayanagara, and through the papers of T.C. Hope, the producer of the three volumes of 1866, an examination of the production and reception of a group of photographically illustrated books in the mid-nineteenth century.