The Beauty Of Kashmir In The 19th Century, 2 Photos 1890
Two 1890 photographs show the beauty of Kashmir during the 19th century. Kashmir was already a favourite subject for the earliest travel photographers working in British-era India. The first image features a valley-like setting, with the Lesser Himalayas Mountain range rising hazily. A street-side Kashmiri bungalow faces a fast-flowing river, and bustling activities of pedestrians and horse carts can be seen. Terraced fields climb the lower slopes on the right. A composition beloved by 19th-century studios such as Bourne & Shepherd and their contemporaries, who found in Kashmir some of the most prize-winning landscape work.
The second photograph shifts to a lake, showing a group of Kashmiri boatmen at work on what is almost certainly the Dal Lake. Using long-hulled boats to gather weeds, reeds, or lotus stalks. A routine chore that had sustained lake-dwelling communities in Srinagar for centuries. The still, glassy water throws back near-perfect reflections of the men and their boats, with the Himalayan foothills fading into mist behind them. Together, the two prints offer a rare, unfiltered glimpse of late Victorian-era Kashmir.
Did you know – many of the region’s famous houseboats originated because foreign visitors were once restricted from owning land in Kashmir, leading to the development of luxurious floating homes.
