Berlin, Germany - For the first time, a larger-scale exhibition of fine art photography in 19^th century India will be shown in Berlin. The Asian Art Museum, newly established in December 2006, presents an exquisite selection of around 90 works by major photographers from those pioneering days of photography. Curator: Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, Head of the Collection of South, Southeast and Central Asian Art. On exhibition 10 November 2007 – 29 February 2008.

Beginning in the 1850s European photographers working for the East India Company gathered extensive materials detailing their encounters in India. The English colonial power demanded exacting topographical and ethnographical documentation of the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that a number of the photographers working in India at the time not only developed a quite unique, personal style but also took great interest in the artistic possibilities of the fascinating new media at their disposal. In fact, some of the masterworks of early fine art photography can be found in India starting in the 1850s. They thus highlight the important role the Indian Subcontinent played during this phase.

The oriental, that is to say, the Islamic India of the Mughals was the focus of much attention. Virtually all photographers were taken with a fascination for Mughal architecture, whose monumental grandeur was precisely documented down to even its finest details. As a result, the importance of early Indian photography also plays an unquestionably significant role in the history of architectural photography. Mughal gardens received particular attention from Western photographers with special emphasis placed on the so-called garden tombs of the Mughal Empire.

Undoubtedly, the Taj Mahal was the most important source of such fascination. The most challenging photographers were able to capture these typically Indian monuments and their expansive gardens in expressive and picturesque “photo paintings”. Early views of the Taj Mahal by John Murray, for instance, reveal artistic qualities which may be compared with the masterworks of German Romanticism. Other outstanding pictures of Mughal gardens and Islamic monuments were taken by Thomas H. Biggs, Felice Beato, Samuel Bourne or Lala Din Dayal, to name just a few of the most famous early photographers, which are presented in the exhibition.

Accompanying the exhibition, a bilingual catalogue (English/German) will be published. Mughal India in 19^th Century Photography

Visit the Museum of Asian Art at : www.smb.museum/aku