[Gunpowder Agents Bungalow, Ishapoor.] 1858 - 1861

This albumen print, by John Constantine Stanley, shows the Gunpowder Agents Bungalow in Ishapoor. Photographs like this were made using a painstaking process. The photographer would have coated paper with a light-sensitive emulsion of egg white and silver nitrate. The negative was then placed on the paper, and exposed to sunlight, yielding a print defined by its warm sepia tones and soft detail. In this case, the tonal qualities lend a sense of atmosphere. But consider also the photograph's social context. The bungalow was likely used by British agents overseeing the production of gunpowder, an essential commodity of empire, and Stanley was a British military officer in India. The image offers a glimpse into the material conditions of colonialism, subtly revealing the intricate relationship between labor, resources, and the visual representation of power. It reminds us that even seemingly straightforward images can be rich with social meaning.