How did the colonial photographic gaze shape the ways Indian architecture and cultural heritage were documented, understood, and preserved?

The CCA holds an significant collection of nineteenth-century photographs of Indian temples, including numerous works by Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902), who was employed by the Madras Presidency to document ancient and sacred structures believed to be at risk of disappearing. His photographs record inscriptions, sculptures, and architectural that reveal the assumptions and tensions embedded in a colonial project of looking and recording.

In this presentation, art historian Sarah Carter will explore photographs by Tripe and others of the Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur, sculptures from the Amaravati Stupa, and the rock-cut temples of Elephanta Island. Through close looking, she will consider how photography participated in colonial projects of documentation, classification, and conservation, and how these images might also complicate or unsettle the colonial gaze.

This event is part of Friday in the Collection, a series inviting guests from diverse horizons to explore the CCA collection through a single keyword and to create connections between objects, research, and their own interests.

The event is free and will be held in English. However, as space is limited, registration is recommended.

Sarah Carter is an art historian specialising in British art of the long nineteenth century with an emphasis on empire in South Asia. She is currently a Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the CCA, and the incoming Census Fellow in the Reception of Antiquity at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History and the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London.