Decoratie van het basement van een minaret van de Muhafiz Khan-moskee in Ahmedabad before 1866

Curator: The sepia tones of this print create such an atmosphere...a sense of stillness and age, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Absolutely, there is a strong atmospheric presence. This albumen print, taken before 1866, presents a view of the decoration on the base of a minaret of the Muhafiz Khan Mosque in Ahmedabad, captured by Thomas Biggs. My first reaction is its vertical orientation and intricate detail of the minaret's ornamentation dominating the composition. Curator: Ahmedabad... the dust, the heat… I imagine Biggs setting up his camera, all that preparation... did he feel the weight of history, or just see lines and light? What sort of emotional response was the man after when selecting to focus the shot on the foundation of the tower? It's so curious! Editor: Emotion certainly plays its part, yet formally speaking, the play of light and shadow across the intricate carvings generates a sophisticated pattern, drawing the eye upward while simultaneously emphasizing the structure's grounded presence. Note how Biggs strategically positions the minaret to engage in dialogue with the mosque entrance—which you can see towards the right—creating depth, drawing the spectator’s eye and further guiding the viewer’s focus to the shadowed figure in the corner. Curator: A shadowed figure! How poignant. Almost hidden. It's the human element, dwarfed by faith and artistry, that gets me. All this careful rendering… is it reverence or reportage, this framing? Editor: Well, the formal elements—line, texture, and tonal range—certainly establish a mode of visual rhetoric which emphasizes cultural specificity of Islamic design within a landscape context. However, you bring up an excellent point, considering what appear to be intentions to underscore qualities associated to what could have been interpreted back then as the exoticized other; still, without doubt, the image also reveals a clear passion of representing reality from Biggs. Curator: Passion or precision? Maybe a bit of both. But next time I pass by an old mosque I won't only think about math but Biggs, somewhere in India with his big, cumbersome camera, working so carefully under the heat. I bet he smiled a bit, while documenting the geometric foundation; an ode to structure and faith in sepia! Editor: A beautiful reflection. By combining a study on architectural form with historical sentimentality and a bit of visual pleasure, we arrive to a fuller image on the cultural significance of Thomas Biggs’ photographic study on Ahmedabad.