B&W PHOTOS

19th Century Photography in Burma

The majority of the photographs shown on this webpage were taken during the 19th Century starting from 1852.

The photos of Linneaus Tripe (1822 -1902) are amongst the first photographic documents of Myanmar formerly known as Burma. Linnaeus Tripe was a British photographer, best known for his photographs of India and Burma taken in the 1850s. He joined the East India Company army in 1838, and in 1840, became a lieutenant based in the south of India. He returned to England in 1850, on a leave that was extended due to ill health until 1854. During this time he began to experiment with photography. In June 1855, Tripe accompanied an official expedition to Burma to obtain representations of scenes and buildings. This visit resulted in the publication of Burma Views.

Felice Beato (1832 – 1909) was the first photographer to devote himself entirely to photographing in Asia and the Near East. A naturalized English subject born in Venice, he led a colorful life. He photographed in Japan, India, Athens, Constantinople, the Crimea, Palestine and China (where he was the first photographer, in 1860). He settled in Yokohama and from 1863 to 1877 made hundreds of ethnographic portraits and genre scenes in Japan. Felice Beato arrived in Burma probably in December 1886, after Upper Burma had been annexed by the British in late 1885. Beato set up a photographic studio in Mandalay in 1889 and, in 1894, a curiosa and antiques dealership, running both businesses separately and very successfully.

Philip Adolphe Klier (1845-1911), a German-born photographer began his active life as a professional photographer in 1871, starting in Moulmein, one of the bigger cities of 'Lower Burma'. Although Klier can be regarded as an early photographer, photography as such was no longer experimental. Around 1880 Klier moved to Rangoon, Burma's biggest and fastest growing city. The desire to have a studio was what most probably prompted him to look for a partner and so he worked together with J. Jackson in the period 1885-90 but then, for the rest of his life, he carried on independently.

J. Jackson was a commercial photographer working in Burma from 1865 until 1915. The photographic business of Bentley and Jackson is listed in 'Thacker's Bengal Directory' from 1865-69, as Jackson and Lourie (probably Lawrie) in 1870 and as J. Jackson alone from 1871. He briefly entered into another partnership as Klier and Jackson from 1885-88, but from that time on, until his disappearance from the directories after 1915, he practised independently.

Willoughby Wallace Hooper (1837–1912) was born in North Brixton. From November 1853 to 1858 he was a Writer in the Secretary's Department, East India House. In 1858 Hooper was commissioned into the 7th Madras Light Cavalry. He was Provost Marshall on the Burma Expeditionary Force from November 1885 to 1886 and published a volume of 100 photographs of the 3rd Burmese War 1885-86 while he was serving as Provost Marshall.

Bourne & Shepherd established in 1863, is the oldest photographic studio still in operation, and one of the oldest established photographic businesses in the world. At its peak it was the most successful commercial firm in 19th-and early 20th-century India, with agencies all over India, and outlets in London and Paris, and also ran a mail order service. Colin Murray was send to Burma to take pictures for Bourne & Shepherd and later became Bourne's successor. Most Bourne & Shepherd studio negative numbers after 2200 are considered the work of studio photographers following Bourne's departure in 1871.

Watts and Skeen was a commercial photographic company active in Burma from the 1880s to the 1900s. The firm was managed by F.A.E. Skeen. Skeen had gone to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to join his brother in the firm 'Skeen and Co.' in 1878. In 1888 Skeen went into partnership with H.W. Watts and opened a branch in Rangoon. The firm continued in business in Burma until circa 1908. However, Skeen himself returned to Ceylon in 1903 to run the firm there on the death of his brother. H.W. Watts continued to be listed in the almanacs as manager of the wine merchants 'Arthur Barnes' until circa 1924.