Crossings

19th Century British Colonial Photography

The exhibition features 19th-century British colonial photography in dialogue with contemporary work by French-Sri Lankan artist Vasantha Yogananthan.

The Rijksmuseum has approximately twelve hundred 19th-century photographs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet in its photography collection. Many of the photographs were commissioned, intended to portray countries and regions unknown to European and American society. The photographers who took these images depicted the world in a seemingly objective manner, while at the same time their work reflected the interests of their clients.

The selection can be seen together with the work of Yogananthan, who, more than a hundred years later, went in search of his own background in the same areas

Vasantha Yogananthan

Yogananthan's work builds on the rich photographic tradition that originated in the subcontinent. The exhibition shows part of his series 'A Myth of Two Souls'. For this, Yogananthan made 13 journeys through India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and went in search of the way in which age-old stories, myths and traditions continue to have an effect in the present.

Thanks to

The exhibition is made possible by the Familie van Heel Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds and the Rijksmuseum International Circle. The exhibition was created in collaboration with Vasantha Yogananthan.