DAG’s new exhibition at Alipore Museum felt like entering a time portal between 1855 and 1920, where the sepia coloured photographs on the wall spoke more than their descriptions could ever convey. Typecasting: Photographing the People of India 1855- 1920 displays over 200 rare photographs curated by historian Sudeshna Guha. These photographs aim at starting a dialogue about recorded histories, errors or typecasting, classification and typologies while aesthetically showing the society, demography and ethnography of an era gone by.
DAG's new exhibition tells the history of the people of India through photographs
On display are several untitled photographs, some by well-known photographers l ike Charles Shepherd and Samuel Bourne, and some by lesser-known but brilliant photographers like John Edward Sache, Edward Taurines, and more. To make things simple for viewers, it is divided into broader sections including ethnic people, women, and trade.
One of the major highlights is a selection of folios from The People of India, an eight–volume series of photographs and descriptive letterpress, compiled by John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye, published between 1868 and 1875, featuring the works of Benjamin Simpson, James Waterhouse, William Willoughby Hooper, among others. The folio contains photographs of people, including the northeastern Lepcha and Bhutia to the Afridis of Sindh.
Women, in particular, were also a major subject of photography. These ranged from the royal women and commoners to working women and nautch girls. Commissioned portraits were also not far behind. Descriptive title cards reading Delhi dancing girls with musicians, A gypsy dancing girl Kathiawar, to A Bheel woman or Miss Mogal Jan of Lucknow give viewers the span of photography with just women as the core subject.
Another interesting way of classifying people in those days was by their occupation. Photographs titled On the way to the burning ghat, Bringing in tea leaf and weighing, Street barber, A potter making tiles, Native fruit shops, and Snake charmers give a wide idea of the social construct of the colonial times.
“Through photographs of the colonial endeavours of typecasting the people of India, the exhibition draws attention to the construct that is a typology, or a class. It shows the uncertainties in type-making and encourages seeking a visual history of the early photography and anthropology of India beyond the colonial gaze, to reckon with the inherent mutability of photographs; for photographs mean differently to different viewers, in different circumstances of viewing,” observes curator Sudeshna Guha.
These photographs provide a holistic view of the vibrancy across the length and breadth of an undivided India, including tribal colonies, trade colonies, local bazaars, indigenous customs, food preferences, occupations, and more. It aims to start a dialogue, reinterpret, and re-examine typecasting through a modern lens.
Typecasting is on display till November 1, 2026
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