Getty Museum
Nagina Mosque, Agra Fort, India
Creator
Dr. John MurrayBritish Photographer · 1809–1898
All works by this person →Although trained as a medical doctor, Dr. John Murray excelled as a photographer. The Scottish-born doctor was introduced to photography around 1849, while in the Medical Service of the Army of the East India Company. Stationed near the Taj Mahal in Agra, he evidently developed a considerable interest in the Mughal architecture of the region. Throughout the forty-year period that Murray lived and
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1857–1860
- Medium
- Waxed paper negative
- Culture
- British
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
This large waxed-paper negative displays a view of the private mosque built for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the 1630s. Dr. John Murray, who made this negative while working in India, altered it to improve the visual harmony and luminosity of the finished print. He achieved increased contrast by blocking out the sky area with pigment and bleaching the deeply shaded section under the roof to more clearly show the mosque interior. The waxed-paper process was particularly useful for traveling photographers like Murray because the paper did not require immediate development. It also offered more translucency than other commonly used negatives. The process involved rubbing wax into the paper negative before it was sensitized and exposed. The wax created a smooth surface and reduced the blurring effects of paper fibers. Both the negative and the final print display great clarity of detail, as in the piercings of the surrounding wall and the outlines of distant buildings.
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