Camera Indica: the Social Life of Indian Photographs

Exploring the changing role of photographic portraiture in India over the last 150 years, this is an anthropological study of photographic practice in the everyday realm of Indian society. The book combines historical and ethnographic perspectives, based on the author's own experiences in India. Pinney looks at significant "moments" in Indian photography and considers the ways in which photographic portraiture reflects changing political interests, a decreasing desire to fix identity, and a broader popular visual culture. A distinctive post-colonial photographic practice emerges, characterized by a sophisticated inventiveness using techniques such as overpainting, collage and composite printing. Much of the book is concerned with the production of such images by studios in a small central-Indian town, and it aims to provide readers with a sense of their use and significance.