With the exceptions of Bangalore and Belgaum, there are not many postcards of smaller cities in Karnataka; even today, Palakkad's population is less than 150,000. This shot of a large mansion concealed by trees on the left and carts in the center of
Mela Ram was a photographer who might have warmly welcomed the advent of the real-photograph as a way for his art to take precedence over the vagaries of publishing in collotype or halftone using hand-tinted color to enhance images (there are few
Lessons in Music was published around 1905, when Dhurandhar participated in the first Bombay Exhibition, the official medal which he designed and received a Gold Medal for, in addition to other awards.
A particularly charming postcard of a city bazaar, with the curve of the street in the foreground, daubs of red on two sun umbrellas, and a variety of carriages plying the mud-baked road.
“Hyderabad is the premier native state of India, having twice
Were Indians allowed on the Mall in Shimla?
A rather unusual postcard, apparently made by a Christian missionary organization, possibly to showcase their support for patients and raise funds for their work.
A postcard that reflects how easily Kolkata mixed past and present at the turn of the century. Paan is an ancient cornucopia of spices and nuts wrapped in a betel leaf. Next to it are cooling soda bottles.
A less common, fairly casual, finely hand-tinted street scene in a then smaller city.
When the bubonic plague struck Bombay in the 1890s, postcards were used, in part, by the business community to communicate that all was okay, and that patients were being well taken care of in facilities like this one with clean interiors and an
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
