Samuel Bourne (1834-1912) was born in Shropshire, England. As a young man he became a keen amateur photographer exhibiting work at the Nottingham Photographic Society Exhibition in 1858. He arrived in India in January of 1863 at which point he undertook the arduous journey from Madras to Simla and the foothills of the Himalayas.
 
In Simla he met up with William Howard, who was a professional photographer in Simla and became a partner in the photographic business that Howard had already established. Shortly after, they were joined by Charles Shepherd and the partnership of Bourne and Shepherd was begun. Howard left the company in 1866.
 
Bourne‘s photographic journeys of 1863 into the Himalayas, 1864 to Kashmir and his second trip to the Himalayas in 1865/66 form what is considered his finest body of work. The dramatic photographs of these remote and almost inaccessible regions help make his name as a true artist and the premier photographer of the Indian sub-continent.
 
In the short space of seven years he produced in excess of 2,200 superb images of the landscape and architecture of the country. We are indeed fortunate that the quality of his prints was such that many fine examples of his work have survived. The popularity of Indian photography owes a lot to the wonderful images that Samuel Bourne produced.
 
Bourne left India November 1870, never to return.