Imageine: Hall of frame and ‘The Beauties of Lucknow’

‘The Beauties of Lucknow’ is a series of 21 photographs of courtesans taken in 1874 by Darogha Abbas Ali. These photographs were made using the popular albumen print method of the 1850s. The subject of most of these portraits is a young woman photographed in a studio, often standing in the foreground and leaning her elbow on a high-backed velvet chair, with hanging draperies framing the background. Some of the pictures display a seated individual or a group instead, and include other members of the household in the frame. All the women in Ali’s work are dressed in traditional Indian attire, and wear elaborate jewellery to match.

Albumen paper was invented in 1850 by Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard by dipping paper in a solution of salt and silver nitrate. It was a successor to the salt print process of the early 19th century, and photos printed on albumen paper produced better images with crisp details, warm tones, contrast and a lasting sheen. This method was used by the British to photograph the Indian subcontinent from the 1860s to the 1890s. It soon gained popularity among Indian royalty, and with the setting up of studios, court painters found themselves out of jobs.

In the 1850s, courtesans were a very important part of the royal court of Lucknow. They held positions of prestige and renown, and were skilled in poetry, the art of music, and many diverse styles of dance. These distinguished women were referred to as tawaifs, and they played a significant role in moulding the artistic landscape of their era. In the 1870s, Ali photographed the courtesans. His photographs became a celebration of the beauty of these women, reasserting their lost status and pride through his lens.

Ali published several volumes of these photographs, uniquely accompanied by text in both English and Urdu. The album is held in at least five or six different archives and collections, and each version is different. There are discrepancies in the colour of the cover and binding, the number of photographs, their order and size, and even the captions attached to each image, as each album was unique. One of the original books is held at Museo Camera as part of the India Photo Archive Foundation (IPAF).

Some of the works are on display at Museo Camera’s exhibition in Gurugram — ‘Touching Light: A Prelude to the Bicentennial of Photography (1827–2027)’. On until September 29.

— Arya is founder-director of Museo Camera