Linnaeus Tripe

(b Devonport, 1822; d Devonport, 1902). English photographer. He was an enthusiastic photographer while stationed with the army in India from 1839 to 1875. In the 1850s he initiated and undertook numerous surveys of sites of historical and ethnographical interest: the best-known include commissions for the British East India Company (1855) and the Madras Presidency (1856). The latter resulted in the publication of six volumes entitled Photographic Views of Indian Scenery: Madura, Tanjore and Trivady, Ryakotta, Seringham, Poodoocottah and Trichinopoly. Using the calotype process, he enhanced his chosen architectural subject-matter with a dramatic use of available light and a subtly lyrical quality that transcended photography's hitherto purely factual function.

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Tripe, Linnaeus (1822-1902), English photographer employed in the Madras Native Infantry 1839-75. Tripe's earliest photographs were made on leave in Devonport, England, c.1851-4. Returning to India in 1854, he photographed Halebid, Belur, and Sravana Belagola, later exhibiting views at the Madras Exhibition of 1855. From August to November 1855, Tripe was sent to Burma as official photographer with the mission to Ava, a commission which produced a portfolio of 120 topographical and architectural studies. Following this success, he was appointed government photographer to the Madras presidency in October 1856. He toured south India between December 1857 and July 1858, publishing the results in 1858 as Photographic Views in Ryacottah, … Seringham, … Trichinopoly, … Madura (in four parts), … Poodoocottah, and … Tanjore. During this period he also made a 21-part panorama of an inscription in Tanjore, two volumes of stereographic views, and Photographs of the Elliot Marbles (1859). He was helped with the printing by the Indian photographer C. Iyahsawmy. The post of official photographer was abolished in 1860, whereupon Tripe returned to England until 1863. While stationed at Tonghoo, Burma, in 1870, he made views of Kasur-do Hill. Many of his original paper negatives survive in the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, Bradford.

— Sophie C. Gordon

Bibliography

• Dewan, J., By Thee I Draw: Catalogue Raisonné of Linnaeus Tripe (2002)