Kashmir and Scinde Valley; View from the Top of the Zojji-la Pass c. 1867

Curator: Samuel Bourne's "Kashmir and Scinde Valley; View from the Top of the Zojji-la Pass" captures a majestic mountain vista. Editor: There's something deeply melancholic about this scene. The stark, almost ghostly peaks loom in the distance. Curator: Bourne, active in the latter half of the 19th century, used photography to document the British presence in India, often framing it through a lens of romantic grandeur. Editor: The inclusion of the small figures really emphasizes the scale. I wonder how much this glorification of landscape served to mask the complex colonial narrative playing out at the time. Curator: Indeed. Bourne's work, while visually stunning, also subtly reinforces a power dynamic, an almost possessive gaze over the region. Editor: It also brings to mind the exploitation of resources, the human impact often invisible in these seemingly untouched landscapes. I'm left with a sense of awe tinged with unease.