Cleveland Museum of Art

India. Calcutta. Upper Chitpore Road (A), after photo by Dr. Kurt Boeck

Photoglob Co.

Date

c. 1890–1910

Medium

Photochrom

Culture

India, 19th century

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This busy street corner gives us a glimpse into everyday life in turn-of-the-twentieth-century India. Unlike most of the mid-19th century genre photographs of colonial India, which were posed or staged, here people go about their business, unaware that they are being photographed. The color scene was made using a black-and-white negative by Dr. Kurt Boeck, a German actor and mountain climber who became a travel writer and lecturer specializing in Asia. Chitpore (now spelled Chitpur) Road is one of the oldest roads in Kolkata (previously Calcutta).

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