This remarkable photo was taken in 1858 and shows the Chutter Manzil Palace in Lucknow, India. The year is 1858 and the Indian Mutiny has just been brutally suppressed by the British.
The Photograph
This is a photograph of the Chutter Manzil Palace in 1858, just after the Indian Mutiny. If you look closely you can see sell damage to the walls of the palace, attesting to heavy fighting between the British and Indian mutineers. It had been used as a stronghold by the Indian rebels.
The Chutter Munzil Palace, also known as the Umbrella Palace, belonged to the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, (30 July 1822 – 1 September 1887) was the eleventh and last King of Awadh. Construction had started on the palace in the early 1800s and it had been expanded and improved over the years. It was taken over by the British when the Nawab was deposed.
In front of the palace is the Gumti River, one of the holy tributaries of the Ganges, with several half sunken boats, casualties of the fighting. The most noteworthy thing in the photo is a large boat shaped like a fish, complete with fins and a covering made to resemble fish scales. The one of a kind boat, sadly damaged, had belonged to the Nawab. Its fish-shape was a traditional symbol of kingly authority and its symbol was closely associated with the Nawabs of Lucknow.
The Photographer
This remarkable image is part of a series of photos taken by Felice Beato (1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, a pioneering photographer and one of the first photojournalists. Beato was born in Venice but his family moved to Ionia, in Greece, which was then a British protectorate. As a result, Beato acquired British citizenship.
As an adult, he set up a photography studio in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. During the Crimean War he traveled to the front lines and produced ground breaking photographs of the war. He eschewed photos which depicted war as gentlemanly or honorable. Instead, he focused on the reality of war. His series of photos of Sevastopol are considered iconic and represent some of the first war reporting by a photo journalist.
Later, Beato traveled through South East Asia and captured photos of life in Burma, Persia and India. He reached India just after the end of the Indian Mutiny and recorded gripping images of the aftermath of the fighting, including photos of the dead mutineers. Beato is accused of having had some of the bodies dug up and staged in order to produce more newsworthy photos.
The photo of the Umbrella Palace and the Fish Boat are part of a larger collection of photos that Beato produced during his time in India.
Throughout his groundbreaking career, Beato only owned a single relatively primitive camera lens. Despite the inherent limitations of his camera, Beato was able produce incredible images. Remarkably, Beato never broke his lens or needed to replace it despite traveling thousands of miles through by land and sea, to distant underdeveloped lands. Equally remarkably, Beato did not invest in a spare lens, and made his photographic forays to distant countries with only one lens and no backup.