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    ARTICLE

    William Johnson

    Map Academy

    Articles are written collaboratively by the EIA editors. More information on our team, their individual bios, and our approach to writing can be found on our About pages. We also welcome feedback and all articles include a bibliography (see below).

    19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a Parsi lady with a boy seated on a chair 19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a Parsi lady with a boy seated on a chair
    Parsi woman and boy, photograph from the Costumes and Characters of Western India Album; William Johnson, probably Mumbai, India; Before 1860; 24.5 x 20 cm; Leiden University Library, Netherlands

    A photographer and civil servant in British India, William Johnson is believed to have arrived in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in 1848 and occupied various clerical and administrative positions till 1861. He also had a daguerreotype and albumen print studio in Grant Road, Bombay, from 1852–60, which continued to operate till 1868.

    Johnson was a founding member of the Bombay Photographic Society in 1854, serving as its joint secretary until 1855 and co-editing its monthly Journal of the Photographic Society of Bombay alongside WHS Crawford. During this time, he also partnered with William Henderson to create ethnographic studies of the inhabitants of Bombay, which appeared in the Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album, published in thirty six issues between 1856–58 by the Society. Each issue contained three pasted-in albumen prints, which later constituted Photographs of Western India, a three-volume series containing 287 prints – including ethnographic photographs and landscape and architectural views – made by Johnson. The first volume, titled Costumes and Characters, contained ethnographic photographs, while the second and third volumes, titled Scenery and Public Buildings, Churches, Temples etc. respectively, contained landscape and architectural photographs, with about a hundred photographs each presenting alternate or additional perspectives to those featured in the Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. His photographs also appeared in John Wilson’s publication, The Caves of Karla Illustrated: In a Series of Photographs (1861).

    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a group of men spinning cotton Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a group of men spinning cotton
    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a group of girl students in Bombay Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing a group of girl students in Bombay
    Men spinning cotton, photograph from the Costumes and Characters of Western India Album; William Johnson, probably Mumbai, India; 1856; Leiden University Library, Netherlands
    Students in front of the house of Shet Mungaldass Nathoobhoy, photo probably from the The Indian Amateurs Photographic Album; William Johnson, Mombay, India; Before 1860; 20 x 25 cm; Leiden University Library, Netherlands

    While Johnson used the daguerreotype process in his early photographs, from 1855 onwards, he began adopting the wet-collodion method. In his photographs, he employed techniques that echoed Victorian portraiture, developing carefully crafted photographs of groups of Jews, Banias and Parsis in Bombay posing against elaborate backgrounds consisting of velvet curtains and Roman pillars. The even lighting and centred composition of Johnson’s subjects indicate that these sessions were studio visits.

    Photographs of Indians – often disseminated as souvenirs and postcards – were part of the British administration’s larger ethnographic project, and the modes and conventions of representation it encouraged played a significant role in how the subcontinent was understood and governed. Johnson’s subjects remained unnamed and were presented as typical representatives of their group, suggesting a certain foreignness, exoticism and a foray into ethnographic examination, therefore setting a visual precedent for subsequent ethnographic studies.

    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Elphinstone College in Mumbai Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Elphinstone College in Mumbai
    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing Kanhoji Angre's Kolaba Fort in Alibag Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing Kanhoji Angre's Kolaba Fort in Alibag
    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Basilica of Bom Jesus Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Basilica of Bom Jesus
    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Temple Complex on the Krishna River at Wai Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing the Temple Complex on the Krishna River at Wai
    Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing Ruins of Palace in Bijapur Mid-19th-century archival photograph by William Johsnon showing Ruins of Palace in Bijapur
    Elphinstone College, from Photographs of Western India, Volume II: Scenery, Public Buildings, & c; William Johnson, India; c. 1855–1862; 42 x 35 cm; DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas
    Kanhoji Angre's Kolaba Fort; William Johnson, Alibag, Maharashtra, India; c. 1855–1862; 35 x 42 cm; DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas
    Basilica of Bom Jesus; William Johnson, Goa, India; c. 1855–1862; 35 x 42 cm; DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas
    Temple Complex on the Krishna river at Wai; William Johnson, Satara, Maharashtra, India; c. 1855–1862; 35 x 42 cm; DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas
    Ruins of palace; William Johnson, Bijapur, Karnataka, India; c. 1855–1862; 35 x 42 cm; DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Texas

    The photographs of caste groups taken individually by Johnson for the Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album are transformed in subsequent iterations found in The Oriental Races and Tribes, Residents and Visitors of Bombay (1863, 1866). His photographs were also used in the Frith Series India Vol. I, published by Francis Frith & Co. Since they were sold as souvenirs rather than full sets, it is difficult to find complete sets of Jonson’s photographs. The National Gallery of Australia houses the first volume of The Oriental Races and Tribes, Residents and Visitors of Bombay, whereas the DeGolyer Library of the South Methodist University in Dallas, USA, holds all three volumes of Photographs of Western India.

     
    Bibliography

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