In Focus: A History of Studio Photography

The earliest photo studios in India primarily served colonial interests or catered to the desires of the royal and the wealthy. Over time however, the experience of going to a studio was to become more accessible, even commonplace. And the studio became a space that catered to a range of people with a range of reasons for taking photographs. Today, the photo studio is a dying institution with limited applications. Many of its stories and those of the people it documented remain alive only in rarely preserved studio archives, museums and personal collections.

To celebrate World Photography Day, MAP is looking at the history of studio photography in India through its collection. Join Prachi Gupta, an archivist at MAP, who explores the photo studio as an entry point into picturing the transition of image-making and dissemination in a rapidly modernising India.