Lala Deen Dayal

Lala Deen Dayal (1844–1905) was an Indian photographer whose portraits, architectural views, and documentary images recorded nineteenth-century India, especially its princely courts.

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Hyderabad State: A princely state in the Deccan that existed from 1724 to 1948 under the Nizams. Dayal established a photographic studio in Hyderabad and documented its rulers and institutions.
Photography in India: The history and practice of photography on the Indian subcontinent, beginning in the nineteenth century. Dayal worked within the photographic culture that took root in India after photography's invention.
Wet-plate collodion process: A nineteenth-century photographic process in which a light-sensitive collodion coating is exposed and developed while wet. This process enabled the detailed glass-plate negatives used in much of Dayal's era.
Royal Photographic Society: A British organization founded in 1853 to promote the art and science of photography. Dayal received recognition from the society, connecting his work to international photographic institutions.
Mahbub Ali Khan: The sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, who ruled from 1869 to 1911. Dayal photographed the ruler whose court became a major subject of his work.
Thomas Sutton: An English photographer and photography writer who taught at the Thomason College of Civil Engineering. Dayal studied engineering at the college where Sutton taught and encountered photography.
Albumen print: A photographic print made with light-sensitive silver salts suspended in egg white on paper. Albumen prints were a common way to reproduce and distribute nineteenth-century photographs.
Victoria Memorial: A monument and museum in Kolkata built to commemorate Queen Victoria and British rule in India. Its collections preserve photographs by Dayal, extending the reach of his historical record.
Chowmahalla Palace: A palace complex in Hyderabad that served as the seat of the Asaf Jahi dynasty. Dayal's views of Hyderabad recorded court architecture such as this palace.
Thomason College of Civil Engineering: An engineering college founded in Roorkee in 1847, now known as the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Dayal trained there before beginning his photographic career.