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THE LUCKNOW ALBUM: EXPLORING AESTHETIC AFFINITIES IN INDO-ISLAMIC VISUAL ARTS – TAASA Review March 2017

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This article was originally found in the March 2017 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 4).

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Sushma Griffin D arogha Ubbas Alli, a relatively unknown Shia Muslim photographer, created the historically and critically significant Lucknow Album around 1874.

It is the first self-published indigenous interpretation of the 1857 Indian `Mutiny’ in Lucknow, capital of Awadh (also known as Oudh) in present day Uttar Pradesh (Sharma 1983: 63).

While the album ostensibly commemorates British sacrifice during the 1857 revolt, its multivalent internal contradictions reveal a nuanced subversion of this visual account of British power. Najuf Ashraf or Shah Najuf, The Lucknow Album, 1874, Darogha Ubbas Alli, replicated from Silver Albumen print, British Library Collection, London...