Allegory & Illusion

The extraordinary range of photography from South Asia dates back to the official birth of the medium in the mid-19th century. One of the first exhibitions of its kind in North America, Allegory & Illusion offers an intimate survey of vintage images from the modern nations of India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Nepal. Together, they established a unique regional history of photography through both foreign and local practitioners. The photographs, drawn exclusively from the private collection of Mr. E. Alkazi, Chairman, Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, have been curated to explore the linked fields of portraiture, figuration and inter-visual communication. This volume, produced in conjunction with the exhibition, presents the works of some of the leading photographers and studios of the time, namely Felice Beato, Bourne and Shepherd, Johnston and Hoffmann, Gobind Ram and Oodey Ram, Darogah Abbas Ali, Raja Deen Dayal and Shapur Bhedwar. The three lead essays, together with photographer biographies and techniques, present varied perspectives on photography's development of a unique vernacular culture. Ethnography, identity, integration and assimilation are therefore some of the key notions that underlie practices of portraiture and domesticating space reordering how an image may be perceived in our digital present. Published in association with the Alkazi Collection of Photography and Rubin Museum of Art.

Christopher Pinney is currently Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London and his research interest focuses on the history of photography.

Beth Citron is an assistant curator at the Rubin Museum of Art.

Rahaab Allana is the curator of Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.