Reframing Generic Images: Old Indian Photos by Nihaal Faizal
Nihaal Faizal is an artist working around the idea of the copy, often reflecting upon media documents from popular and cultural memory. In his recent projects, he has worked with found media to intervene in various subcultures of digital image production including science fiction cinema, computer desktop backgrounds as well as tropes found in vernacular graphic design.
The series old indian photos (2016) consists of a set of forged antique photographs mounted on vintage cardstock, purchased by the artist in the tourist bazaar of Jew Town, Mattancherry in Kochi. The work exists as a collection of unique photographic ready-mades. These prints depict scenes from varying contexts in South Asian history from as early as the 1800s, including ethnographic portraits of tribal families, portraits of aristocratic women and scenes showcasing traditional costumes and customs. The verso (flipside) of the cardstock, upon which the images are mounted, shows the prices (in rupees) of these “antique” photographs.
Albumen Photograph of a Indian Family with Children - 1870's.jpg. (From the Series old indian photos. Forged Antique Photographs, 2016. Images courtesy of the artist.)
However, upon closer inspection, these photographs reveal clear signs of digital mediation including pixelation and artificial toning. Through the processes of digitisation and reverse image searches by the artist, these images (some of which were also from Sri Lanka) were revealed to be sourced from a single website called oldindianphotos.in. The artist’s titles for each of these images corresponds to their original titles on the same website. The website appears to be a visual archive, resembling a collection of stock photography—albeit of historic looking images from South Asia, presenting a certain archetype of South Asian history and culture steeped in colonial anthropological photographic practices.
A dancing girl photo probably by Bourne, from the 1860's.jpg. (From the Series old indian photos. Forged Antique Photographs, 2016. Images courtesy of the artist.)
Faizal’s findings invert the narrative that these photographs—as cultural objects in circulation—aim to project. Despite representing a mythical, exotic and opulent India from the past, they also reveal the networks of production within which colonial photographic histories continue to be constructed—in this case for the consumption of (largely Western) tourists. In a post-digital world, antique photographs are artefacts with exclusive monetary and cultural value and present photography as an objective window into these removed worlds. However, through the artist’s intervention of purchasing, researching and reframing these photographs as a rare collection of “forged” antique photographs, the apparent cultural value of “historical photographs” is brought into complex contention with the contemporary forces of neo-colonial capitalism and globalisation. As a work, the status of these photographic artefacts as a forged or false image of history is foregrounded through the paratext such as the captions for these images.
Kandy Girls Wearing Jewellery - Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1880's.jpg. (From the Series old indian photos. Forged Antique Photographs, 2016. Images courtesy of the artist.)
All images by Nihaal Faizal.
