History in the Making

Abstract

While the nationalist movement gathered momentum in India, a visual archive was being created by a small group of intrepid photographers. The ca era had moved out of the studio into the streets, and more portable photographic equipment was making it possible for them to be present at every major event of the time. While the more iconic of their images would eventually be remembered as History, their own histories were far from visible, dominated as they were by stories of missing negatives and prints, of ambiguities about ownership and authorship, and a lack of recognition. After all, unlike their more famous counterparts, such as Margaret Bourke-White or Henri Cartier-Bresson, these were just humble press photographers. Yet, unaware of the importance