The Tree Fern, Prize Photo 1863

Samuel Bourne made this photograph, "The Tree Fern, Prize Photo," sometime in the 19th century. Bourne was a British photographer known for his images of India during the British Raj. Bourne's work exists within a complex colonial context. While celebrated for their aesthetic beauty, photographs like this one served to document and promote the colonial presence. How might the act of photographing the landscape, framing it in a particular way, be seen as a form of claiming or possessing it? Bourne himself acknowledged the allure of the foreign landscape, writing of its "novelty and beauty." Consider the power dynamics at play, the photographer's gaze shaping and defining the narrative of a place and its people. The photograph invites us to consider the impact of colonialism on both the land and its inhabitants, and it gives rise to questions of representation and cultural exchange.