Gezicht op de Miya Khan Chishti-moskee in Ahmedabad before 1866

This is a photograph of the Miya Khan Chishti Mosque in Ahmedabad, captured by Thomas Biggs. It’s part of an archive that reflects the British colonial gaze on Indian architecture and culture. Think about what it meant to document these structures during a time of imperial expansion. Biggs, through his lens, wasn’t just recording a building; he was framing a narrative, defining a relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The choice to capture this mosque, a place of worship, transforms it into an object of study and possession. How does this documentation impact the community connected to the mosque? The stark contrast and the composition highlight the mosque's imposing structure, perhaps unintentionally underscoring its cultural significance, or maybe, signaling the dominance of a foreign power observing and categorizing a distant land. It is a visual echo of power dynamics, frozen in time.