Hey! You wanna see some 100+ year old photos from India?
Course ya do, come have a gander! These were scanned from a box of 14 glass plate photographs i picked up second hand with an old camera. According to the seller, they were taken by a relative in the 1920s.
The photographer in question was one A. Ferrie, who kindly wrote his name on the box of plates. Quoth the seller, he was an electrical engineer out in what is now Rajasthan. Unfortunately i don't know enough about Indian history or geography to confirm that, if anyone can i'd appreciate it!
Myself and my best made did try and pin down what waterworks were photographed last night, but unfortunately we weren't able to. One we found with a lot of visual similarity was at the wrong end of the country, and every Rajasthan one we found was post-independance.
Nevertheless, Mr. A. Ferrie & descendants took stunningly good care of his equipment. The camera itself is a 1921 model (pic @ end of post), and got to me in near-flawless shape. I'm working on adapting it for modern film right now, to continue its working life.
While i won't be able to use glass plates, i can use other film types that're still made. A couple of adapters, a bit of maths, it'll be fine. Mr. A. Ferrie's camera will live on and take more photographs after over a century in storage.
Even if the locations of these photos may never be placed, they provide a rather interesting look into Colonised India. The construction of irrigation equipment, the import of British structure design marring the landscape, i find it a somewhat chilling reminder that this isn't long ago at all
Like, hell, independance was 80 years ago next year. My granda's older than that. Likely you know at least one person older than that too. The scars of colonisation still rub raw, yet the change and growth since is honestly admirable. Still aways to go, but a lot's been done since.
And thus, we reach the end of the thread. I hope you enjoyed, and at least found it a little interesting to look a century into the past and know that everyone in those photos, including A. Ferrie himself, is long dead. Yet their actions live on, and we look at them now.
Have a good evening, aight?
