ARTICLE
Lala Deen Dayal (b. 1844; d. 1912)
A pioneering Indian photographer in British India, Lala Deen Dayal, also known as Raja Deen Dayal, was known for his architectural and landscape views of India, as well as those of the lives of the colonial and native elite in the country. Over the course of his career, Deen Dayal produced over thirty thousand glass plate negatives using the wet-collodion process.
In 1885, Deen Dayal was appointed photographer to then-Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin, followed by a Royal Warrant of Appointment as photographer to Queen Victoria in 1887. The same year, he was appointed court photographer to Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, where he photographed the royal palace and estates, processions, hunting parties, as well as sites and monuments including temples, mosques and newer infrastructural projects such as bridges and streets. Deen Dayal compiled 110 of these photographs in an album titled Views of the HH the Nizam’s Dominion, Hyderabad Deccan (1888), copies of which the Nizam presented as gifts to visiting dignitaries. Individual photographs from the collection were also sold as prints and postcards, as well as engravings in British magazines. Consequently, in 1894, the Nizam officiated Deen Dayal’s position with a salary and the title of Raja Musavvir Jung Bahadur (meaning “Bold Warrior of Photography”).
Deen Dayal’s studio portraits were known for their painted backdrops as well as conspicuous staging and alignment of human figures to create a marked distinction between the background and foreground. His work was also characterised by conspicuous staging and alignment of human figures to create a marked distinction between the background and foreground. His photographs were instrumental in serving the interests of both the colonial government and the princely states by reflecting the interactions between both groups.
Alongside his appointments, Deen Dayal also established a franchise of commercial photography studios named Deen Dayal & Sons. The first studio was set up at Indore in the mid-1870s, the second at Secunderabad in 1886 and the third and largest in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1894. He also opened a zenana studio in Secunderabad in 1892, which was run by photographer Mrs Kenny-Levick.
In 1893, Deen Dayal was awarded a medal of excellence at the World Columbian Exposition, Chicago. His autobiography, A Short Account of My Photographic Career, was published in 1899. As of writing, his photographs are part of the collections of The Alkazi Collection of Photography; the Peabody Essex Museum; Robarts Library, Canada; University of Toronto, Canada; the Clark and Joan Worswick Collection, USA; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, USA.
Deen Dayal died in 1905 in Bombay.
Bibliography
Bala Krishnan, Usha. “Dazzling Baubles: Gems and Jewels in Princely Portraits.” In Portraits in Princely India 1700–1947, edited by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, 94–95. New Delhi: Marg Foundation, 2008.
Edwards, Steve. “Photography in Colonial India.” In Empire and Art, edited by Renata Dohman. Manchester University Press, 2017.
Gaskell, Nathaniel, and Diva Gujral. Photography in India: A Visual History from the 1850s to the Present. Munich: Prestel, 2018.
Hutton, Deborah. “Raja Deen Dayal and Sons: Photographing Hyderabad’s Famine Relief Efforts.” History of Photography 31, no.3 (2007): 260–75. doi:10.1080/03087290701440247.
Llewellyn-Jones, Rosie, ed. 2008. “Hyderabad: 150 Years of Court Paintings.” In Portraits in Princely India 1700–1947, 64. Marg Foundation.
Sinha, Ajay. “Deepali Dewan and Deborah Hutton, Raja Deen Dayal: Artist Photographer in 19th-Century India (New Delhi: The Alkazi Collection of Photography; Ahmedabad: In Association with Mapin Publishing, 2013) 231 pp. ISBN 9788189995768.” Trans Asia Photography Review 6, no.1 (2015). https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/tap/7977573.0006.111/–deepali-dewan-and-deborah-hutton-raja-deen-dayal-artist?rgn=main;view=fulltext.