Benares, the Great Mosque of Arungzebe (and Adjoining Ghats) 1865 - 1866

Curator: This albumen silver print by Samuel Bourne captures Benares, featuring the Great Mosque of Arungzebe and adjoining ghats. The image is part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: The sepia tones imbue the scene with such a timeless, almost melancholic air, don't you think? The dense composition, contrasting architecture with bustling river activity, is striking. Curator: Bourne operated a commercial studio, and his work contributed to the colonial-era construction of India as an exoticized, knowable place for Western audiences. Note how the ghats, steps leading to the river, are teeming with life, almost staged. Editor: Precisely, those figures performing rituals and mundane tasks serve as potent symbols of purification and cyclical existence. The minarets towering in the background loom as a symbolic counterpoint. Curator: Indeed, the mosque's presence speaks to the complex socio-political dynamics of British India, representing both power and potential tension in the landscape. Editor: The Ganges itself, rendered so placid here, becomes a powerful emblem of continuity. It ties together the spiritual and the everyday. I find the photograph so compelling in its ability to capture a moment in time that seems to stretch into eternity. Curator: I agree; seeing the photograph as a moment in history, we are invited to reflect on how representations shape our understanding of other cultures and our own place in the world.