Studio Portraits

This is the sort of old studio portrait that I love to collect. Who are these people? Husband and wife most likely...but perhaps brother and sister. Their anonymity adds to the intrigue. The composition, vintage tonalities, aged mount and timeworn surface all add to the allure.

Raja Lala Deen Dayal

Over the past several years, slowly but surely, I have been compiling a collection of late 19th Century and early 20th Century Indian portrait photography. The above photo is a recent acquisition, bought from an antique dealer in Udaipur. It shows the Maharaja Pratap Singh of the former princely state of Bansda, now part of Gujarat. This photo was made circa 1901, by the famed studio of Raja Lala Deen Dayal in Bombay. Though my collection has a few such royal personalities, I am most attracted to the studio portraits of more average citizens, such as shopkeepers, advocates, doctors, and housewives.