Portret van een onbekende Kurukh uit Chota Nagpur before 1868

This photograph of an unknown Kurukh man from Chota Nagpur was taken by Benjamin Simpson, likely sometime in the late 19th century. The image, part of a larger book documenting the people of India, presents us with a complicated visual history. British colonial administrators, ethnographers, and photographers often collaborated to create these kinds of visual records. The images created were used to classify and study indigenous populations. Consider the visual codes at play here: the man's adornments, his bare chest, the stark, almost scientific, presentation. These elements, combined with the institutional context of colonial documentation, tell a story of power dynamics and the objectification of a culture. Understanding the photograph requires delving into British colonial history in India, exploring the rise of ethnographic studies, and questioning the power structures inherent in the act of representation. With these historical resources, we can begin to unravel the complexities of this image.