Meet John Murray

Read About the Scottish Photographer John Murray

Although trained as a medical doctor, Dr. John Murray excelled as a photographer. The Scottish-born doctor was introduced to photography around 1849, just a decade after its invention, while in the medical service of the army of the East India Company. Stationed near the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, he developed a considerable interest in the Mughal architecture (built in the 16th–18th centuries) of the region. Throughout the 40-year period that Murray lived and worked in India, he systematically recorded many famous buildings in and around Agra and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

In the mid-1800s, no reliable method of enlarging photographs existed. To make a sizable print, Murray worked with a large-format wooden camera capable of accepting light-sensitive materials, like waxed paper and glass, up to 16 by 20 inches. With this unwieldy equipment, Murray produced a body of work documenting India’s architecture that remained unsurpassed in the 1800s.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• How did a Scottish doctor like John Murray end up working in India?
• What were some challenges that Murray faced in using 19th-century camera equipment?
• Why is Murray’s photography significant?