Overview

The first comprehensive account of India’s popular visual culture; examines the history of the printed image in India from its begininnings in the 1870s to the present day and shows how printed images have been pivotal to the construction of new forms of religious identity and the struggle for political independence in India. It features many unusual and little-seen images.

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9781861891846

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Reviews

An exceptional monograph. . . .Pinney radically alters existing understandings of popular culture and neo-traditional art in South Asia that often suppress their political efficacy. Combining sustained anthropological research, witnessed in the wide range of imagery and interviews cited, and insightful historical reflection . . . Pinney will inspire a generation of visual historians. . . . The text deals with these complex ideas with remarkable coherence and clarity. <i>Photos of the Gods</i> will be come to be recognized as one of the seminal text defining subaltern visuality. Inventive and challenging, in terms of methodology and ambition, it deserves to be read by all students and political transformation in South Asia and beyond. --Daniel J. Rycroft Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (12/01/2005)

An exceptional monograph. . . .Pinney radically alters existing understandings of popular culture and neo-traditional art in South Asia that often suppress their political efficacy. Combining sustained anthropological research, witnessed in the wide range of imagery and interviews cited, and insightful historical reflection . . . Pinney will inspire a generation of visual historians. . . . The text deals with these complex ideas with remarkable coherence and clarity. Photos of the Gods will be come to be recognized as one of the seminal text defining subaltern visuality. Inventive and challenging, in terms of methodology and ambition, it deserves to be read by all students and political transformation in South Asia and beyond. --Daniel J. Rycroft Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (12/01/2005) Pinney's book is a fascinating read, with a narrative that is intersperesed with its own 'xeno-real' moments... Photos of the Gods is a book that must not be ignored. --Vibhuti Sachdev Art History (04/01/2005) Pinney''s book is a fascinating read, with a narrative that is intersperesed with its own ''xeno-real'' moments... Photos of the Gods is a book that must not be ignored. --Vibhuti Sachdev Art History (04/01/2005)

An exceptional monograph. . . .Pinney radically alters existing understandings of popular culture and neo-traditional art in South Asia that often suppress their political efficacy. Combining sustained anthropological research, witnessed in the wide range of imagery and interviews cited, and insightful historical reflection . . . Pinney will inspire a generation of visual historians. . . . The text deals with these complex ideas with remarkable coherence and clarity. Photos of the Gods will be come to be recognized as one of the seminal text defining subaltern visuality. Inventive and challenging, in terms of methodology and ambition, it deserves to be read by all students and political transformation in South Asia and beyond. -- Daniel J. Rycroft Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (12/01/2005)

Author Information

Christopher Pinney is Senior Lecturer in Material Culture at University College London, UK. He is the author of Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs (Reaktion Books, 1997), and co-editor with Rachel Dwyer of Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India (2001).

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