Lakshminarayan Roychowdhury, considered a pioneer of professional photography in India, passed away on this day in 1933.
Born in 1866, he was married at 16.
Through his wife Apurbamayee’s family, he had come into contact with the intellectual life of Kolkata. He was admired for his painting skills.
A representative of Bahawalpur, then a princely state and now in Pakistan, invited him there to paint portraits of members of the Amir’s family.
Roychowdhury, related to the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family, knew Persian and Arabic, which helped him in this royal assignment.
He moved to Lahore and was introduced to photography by John Lockwood Kipling, the author Rudyard Kipling’s father. Roychowdhury bought a bellow-lens camera.
In 1880, he started his own establishment called Roychowdry & Co, with a darkroom, at his Lahore residence. Portrait painting changed for Roychowdhury.
Conservative families, often royals, would feel uncomfortable having female family members sit in front of a stranger for hours.
Now Roychowdhury could take a photograph and paint the portrait based on it.
His fame spread far and wide and he was often called by many royal families for portraits. He had been invited to visit Kabul by the royal court.
Often his sons, from a young age, travelled with him. After his death they carried on his work. His contribution to the early years of Indian photography is of great value.