PENN, Christopher. In Pursuit of the Past. The discovery of the life and work of A.T.W. Penn, pioneering photographer of South India. [Worplesdon, Surrey, published for the author, April 2010].
8vo. Original illustrated paperback, pp. 333, highly illustrated throughout; a good copy.
Third printrun (first, 2008) of a total edition of 450, signed by the author. 'In November 2000 Christopher Penn discovered an old letter crumpled up behind the top drawer of his late father’s writing bureau. It led to the discovery of a family – his own – of which he had been unaware and knowledge of his great-grandfather Albert Thomas Watson Penn, who was one of the pioneering photographers of South India. He left home in England before he was twelve and had started work as a photographer in the hill station of Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Hills by 1865, the year in which he turned sixteen. His work is now held in all the major collections of nineteenth century photography' (South Asia Archive & Library Group blog, September 2, 2008).
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