Shepherd, Charles, fl. 1858-1878 (photographer)
Dates
- Existence: fl. 1858 - 1878
Biography
Charles Shepherd was a talented photographer. He first came to notice as a commercial photographer around 1858. The firm of Shepherd and Robertson appears to have started trading in Agra in about 1862, moving to Simla in 1864. At around this time the partnership of Howard, Bourne and Shepherd was formed in Allahabad, but soon moved to Simla, and presumably the firm of Shepherd and Robertson was then dissolved. It is likely that the stock of Shepherd and Robertson was absorbed by Bourne and Shepherd since prints signed by Shepherd and Robertson certainly later appear in the Bourne and Shepherd catalogue. The firm of Howard, Bourne and Shepherd is listed in Thacker's directory for the years 1865-68. In 1870 Bourne and Shepherd were operating from Simla and Calcutta and a Bombay branch was opened in about 1876. This was operated by Charles Shepherd until his departure from India around 1878. Over and above his work for Bourne and Shepherd, Charles Shepherd's best known photographic work was the woodburytypes and autotypes used to illustrate Cole's 'The architecture of ancient Delhi' (1872). By the time of Shepherd's departure the firm had established its pre-eminence in the sub-continent.
Sources:
Falconer, John (2001), 'India: pioneering photographers 1850-1900', London: The British Library.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Group of Afredees from the Khyber Pass, 1860 - 1865
295 x 210 mm. Group portrait of four Afridi warriors with their flintlock muskets, known as jezails, posed on the mud ramparts of a fort. A heavily reworked rendering of this print, entitled 'Mountaineers in action', is reproduced as an engraving in Louis Rousselet, ‘India and its native princes’ (London 1867 edn.) p. 506. Shepherd no. 1387.