In the Era of Multimedia, finding old pictures dating back from the British Raj or the early days of Free India is always a little event. At that time very few people had cameras, they were big and complicated; they were very different from the tiny pieces of high- technology that we carry in our pockets today.
In olden days, the subjects had to strike the pose, the light had to be perfect and the photographer obviously couldn’t check his picture before there were developed! Can you imagine, some photographs could be missed without any chance to be improved!
This is for all these reasons that models always seem so serious and still in old photographs, like this group of Britishers below who look so proud, so concentrate and are staring at the camera as if God was in it.
Each photograph was unique and that’s why they are so precious nowadays.
I’m always moved when I come upon a web site showing old pictures of India. Paradoxically, it is our Multimedia Era which allows me to discover all these little treasures!
(Click to see the site where these pictures are from…)
The following pictures are from this great site where you can see thousands of photos!
A Dancer
Garden of the Taj Mahal – 1870’s
Tiger Shoot on river Chambal 1952 (So terrible to see a dead tiger today!)
Studio Portrait of a Young Kashmiri Boy and Girl – 1890’s
Director Satyajit Ray on the Set of “Sonar Kella”
Amitabh Bachchan, Kolkata, 1980
Popular Hindi Movie Actress Tanuja – 1960-70’s
Girl saves her lamb in a flooded Village – West Bengal 1968
Message to India
A Message To India 
The photo of Taj Mahal is a shocker. Gosh! Looks like it is standing in the middle of a jungle.
Yes, the gardeners were on holidays… Have you noticed he holes in the pavements? In a way, I like it, it looks more authentic, as if Shah Jahan were still around walking among the cypresses!
awesome pictures……… the picture of young boy and girl is amazing n that too from 1890’s …. nice 🙂
Yes, they look so serious. They have adult faces maybe because of their costumes.
Nice Picture (Kashmiri Boy & Girl) Awesome.
Hi Marilay 🙂 Great post ! That picture of the dead tiger and the Bharatnatyam Dancer is amazing 🙂
I’m glad I found your blog. Being from India myself, it is so lovely to read through your posts.
Happy posting 🙂
Beautiful photographs! Nostalgia revisited all over again with this time warp of a blog post! My favorite is that of the girl saving her lamb:)
Yes, some Indian people treat their goats as dogs or cats! It reminds me of this stupid question by dadaists I think: if there were a fire in your house and you could save only one thing. What would you save?: the picture by Picasso or the cat?