It is to Bremner's credit that he managed to capture some of the most fleeting figures on camera, even if in rich, "picturesque" surroundings like this one where their presence added context and measure to images (and the trade that flowed through
This may be the very cottage where Bremner had an indelible experience. He writes in his autobiography “I never spent such a night. The melting snow was trickling on to the bed through apertures in the ceiling.
The Princely State of Chamba appeared on few postcards during the Raj even though its rulers seemed to have good relationships with a number of Punjab-based photographers, including Fred Bremner and John Burke.
Postmarked Dec. 19, 1903, and sent to Mr. Harington, Bath, England: “Simla 16.12.03. Thank you so much for sending the very pretty pictures cards of Bath. They don’t get them up half as well out here! Best Love, Gracie.”
Engineering feats were a common theme on early postcards, particularly those which also had an "imperial" or conquest sub-text. especially in the western part of the Raj like Balochistan.
Probably the earliest postcard of Government College, Lahore (now renamed Government College University or GCU), and mislabeled by the publisher, Fred Bremner (he got it right on future versions). It's main, church-like building was completed in 1877
The Hindu Martand Temple, built during the 8th century, was dedicated to Surya the Sun Goddess.
An almost painterly postcard when one examines the detail in the foreground of men and women workers, pounding and transporting grain; there are even people at the top left doing something under the tree.
Bremner was among the very earliest postcard publishers of SIndh, and included a handful of views of Sukkur, a town not often photographed by colonial residents.
One of Fred Bremner's favorite images, also found in his autobiography. Wandering through Kashmir he wrote ". . . the eye may sometimes rest on a figure slowly gliding through mid-air with no apparent support whatever.
