"Was photography in India simply a void, filled by pre-existing cultural and historical practices? Or was it disruptive, throwing up new opportunities, prophesying new social formations, and
bringing with its new regime of visibility anxieties about practices and events that were formerly secluded and opaque? Was it simply a form of `late painting' wholly in thrall to enduring
aesthetic schemata? Or did its `indexicality' and mass dissemination create a representational revolution?In this book, based on the 2006 Panizzi Lectures at the British Library, the leading
historian and anthropologist of Indian visual culture transcends `cultural' and `technological' narratives, presenting a subtle and compelling account of the limits, possibilities, and
consequences of photography. The suppleness of photographic technology provides the dynamic which explains photography's changing incarnation as cure, poison, and prophecy.Combining a deep
engagement with the archives, and an immersion in photographic and media theory, Pinney presents a bold account which will reward anyone interested in India, photography, and the history of the
book.Beautifully illustrated, and presenting a large number of previously unpublished images, this book presents a sophisticated account of the disturbance which photography has brought to all
our lives."
