Great Pagoda, Great Bull, Front View, Tanjore, India (Rajarajesvara Temple)

Active in Burma and India during the late 1850s, Linneaus Tripe was a professional soldier and official photographer for the Madras Presidency in India from 1856 to 1860. More than 100 of his photographs of India were published in a series of six volumes classified according to the seven urban areas of the presidency. In this dramatic photograph of the sacred Great Bull, Tripe also documented the surrounding landscape and temple which, when built, was one of the largest buildings in South Asia. Created with the paper negative process, Tripe's image demonstrates his skillful use of the medium to record a dynamic perspective and a rich variety of shape, texture, and light.