View below the Meribul Pass into Cashmere, 1864 (b/w photo)

Photograph of the Meribul Pass into Kashmir, from the 'Strachey Collection of Indian Views', taken by Samuel Bourne (1834-1912) in 1864. Samuel Bourne, the bank clerk and amateur photographer arrived in India in 1863 during the early years of commercial photography. Photographs taken during three expeditions to Kashmir and the Himalayas between 1863 and 1866 demonstrate his ability to combine technical skill and artistic vision. When Bourne stood on the Meribul Pass his responses to the view were conventionally romantic: "What a puny thing I felt standing on that crest of snow!--a mere atom, and scarcely that in so stupendous a world!" Incorrectly labelled as Singapore.