[View of the City from the Ochterlony Monument, Calcutta] 1850s

Editor: Here we have a hand-printed image from the 1850s titled "View of the City from the Ochterlony Monument, Calcutta" by Captain R. B. Hill. The sepia tones give it an antique feel, almost dreamlike. What symbolic weight do you think an image like this carries? Curator: It’s interesting you call it dreamlike. Early photography held immense power, capturing and freezing moments in time for the first time, but it also created distance. Consider what it meant for someone in England to view Calcutta through this lens. The city becomes both knowable and unknowable. Editor: In what way? Curator: These views of Calcutta, meticulously composed and widely circulated, shaped the Western imagination of the city. What do you think is being conveyed through this specific viewpoint, elevated above the cityscape? Is it control, a comprehensive understanding, or something else? The Ochterlony Monument itself, a symbol of colonial power, frames this view. Editor: I see what you mean. The monument itself acts as a kind of… statement. Curator: Precisely! Think about the cultural memory embedded in that monument, the continuity of its message. The choice of perspective speaks volumes about how the British sought to perceive and represent their influence in India. Even today, we interpret this photograph through the historical understanding that colonial projects like this profoundly shape contemporary socio-political narratives and power structures. Editor: That’s a lot to unpack from a single image. Thanks, that's a whole different way of looking at historical photographs. Curator: Indeed, understanding the language of symbols opens doors to richer and deeper interpretations of our visual past.