Kulu, Spiti; The Manirung Pass, 18,600' 1866

Curator: Samuel Bourne’s photograph, "Kulu, Spiti; The Manirung Pass, 18,600'," presents a stark, almost lunar landscape. What’s your first impression? Editor: It's all about the physical challenge, isn't it? The sheer labor of hauling photographic equipment up that mountain...you can almost feel the weight and see the process. Curator: Absolutely. And note the figures—tiny, almost swallowed by the snow. They evoke a sense of vulnerability, pilgrims in a sacred, indifferent space. Mountains often represent aspiration, the quest for the sublime. Editor: Yes, but think of the social context. Bourne, an Englishman, documenting colonial India. What materials were needed? How did that affect the final image? Curator: It becomes a visual document, shaped both by personal vision and by colonial power dynamics. A powerful tension between aspiration and domination. Editor: Precisely. Thinking about the materiality, the constraints, reframes the so-called sublime as a constructed experience. Curator: Considering Bourne’s colonial gaze, it’s hard to separate his experience from a visual record of expansion. Editor: It certainly gives me something to consider about the romantic image of the lone explorer.