The July issue of Spice route In-flight magazine

OPENING SHOT ||||| PHOTOGRAPHY
WORLD’S LONGEST-RUNNING
STUDIO FADES OUT IN KOLKATA
BOURNE & SHEPHERD, the legendary
Kolkata photo studio, and one of the
oldest of its kind in the world, announced
last month that is shutting down after
more than 150 years of continuous
operation. It was established by British
photographer Samuel Bourne in 1863,
who was joined by Charles Shepherd
three years later. Between them, the two
shot landscapes, architectural
masterpieces, British Raj and Indian
nobility as well as celebrities.
Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray
`sat’ in the studio for portraits. One of the
best-known photographs shot by the
studio was a rare portrait of the mystic
Swami Ramakrishna. A devastating fire
in 1991 destroyed most of the studio’s and
it never receovered from the tragedy.
Ironically the news comes as a time
when the studio has been the subject of a
major photo exhibition called Figures in
Time: Bourne & Shepherd organised by
Tasveer , the leading Indian promoter of
photography as an art form. It has been
shown in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi,
Kolkata and Ahmedabad in the last few
months, and will travel to Baroda and
Jodhpur next year.
SpiceJet flies to Kolkata. Log on to
www.spicejet.com for details
Clockwise from top left:
Ahmedabad, Hathi Singh’s tomb,
looking through the gateway, c. 1880;
Rajasthan, His Highness, Maharaja
Bhanwar Pal Deo of Karauli, 1920;
Darjeeling, The loop on the Darjeeling
Himalayan Railway, c. 1880;
Afghanistan, Group of Affreedies
from the Khyber Pass, c. 1860;
Mumbai (formerly Bombay),
Esplanade Road, c. 1880;
All images courtesy
MAP / Tasveer
40 ||||| JULY 2016