A British Life in a Mountain Kingdom: Early Photographs ofSikkim and Bhutan is the first exhibition of photographs by John Claude White,presented in original prints and large-scale reproductions from two importantalbums on view. White, a British government officer and civil engineer, spentmuch of his career stationed in places that one hundred years ago were, and toan extent still remain, shrouded in a certain veil of mystery: India, Nepal,Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan.
Though he was born in Calcutta, White spent his teenageyears studying in Bonn, Germany in the 1880s, where he was undoubtedlyintrigued by the recent ‘golden age’ of mountaineering of the mid-19th centurythat saw the first ascents of many Alpine peaks. White was given the chance tolive amongst some of the world’s most formidable mountains himself in 1888 whenhe was assigned to the Sikkim-Tibet Boundary Commission, tasked with mappingand surveying the regions’ borders. Unlike his counterparts who owned largehomes in India and travelled occasionally to their posts in the outlyingHimalayas, White settled with his family in Sikkim, where they remained forover two decades.
White’s personal knowledge of the landscape and peoples ofthe regions through which he travelled sets him apart from most of hiscontemporaries. His images have an intimate quality and beautifully representthe mountains and architecture he loved, and those whom he came to considercompanions and friends. Particularly unique was his friendship with King UgyenWangchuk of Bhutan, whose country he traversed and photographed widely. Whiteand his party were also the only Westerners to attend and document the King’scoronation in 1907.
White was a pioneer of mountain photography, spending weeksat a time visiting every corner, trekking every valley, and climbing everymountain pass in Sikkim, all the while photographing his official and personalexplorations there and in Bhutan. The cumbersome photographic equipment withwhich he travelled – including a large-format camera and glass plate negatives– is a testament to his dedication to photography. White’s images offered theworld rare glimpses into these isolated Himalayan lands, illustrating hisarticles on Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal for National Geographic Magazine.
Until 10 January, 2011 Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17 Stnear 7th Avenue, New York 10011, tel 212 620 5000, www.rmanyc.org.
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