Description

Murray took up photography while serving in Agra as a medical doctor for the East India Company and published an extensive photographic survey of the city in 1857. Like many other photographers who worked outside the studio, Murray found paper negatives convenient because the paper could be prepared in the darkroom in advance, exposed days later, and developed once the photographer returned home. On this negative, he inked out the sky area so that it would appear brightly sunlit and applied a yellow wash to soften the tone of areas that might otherwise print too dark. Paper negatives had to be made the same size as the intended print because no practical means of enlarging existed at the time. Consequently, most paper negatives are large by modern standards. Murray's negatives, among the largest ever made, required an enormous camera.