1409
dubbed artifi cial clouds or settled for the grainy ‘salt
and pepper’ effect. Tripe had begun printing when the
Madras Establishment again requested his services as
Government Photographer but printing the Ava views
prevented him from taking up the post until the begin-
ning of the following year. The aims of his new post
were to photograph the southern states of the province,
recording important items of interest to historians, an-
tiquaries, and architects, to document different races,
and to initiate other photographic projects.
The post also required Tripe pass on his knowledge
and he taught the calotype process to employees of the
public works department of Madras and the collodian
process to pupils of the Madras school of Industrial
Arts that spring. While teaching in Madras Tripe photo-
graphed the exhibits of the 1857 Madras Exhibition (and
a number of prominent Madras civil servants) using the
collodion negative process. On his return to Bangalore
he printed around 1,800 prints for the government and
a further 1,000 for public sale. Printing again delayed
the start of his next project: a photographic tour of the
Southern States of the Presidency. He fi nally set out in
TRIPE, LINNAEUS
December 1857 taking four bullock carts to transport
his equipment on a trip that lasted seven months—much
of it during the troublesome hot season. Tripe produced
275 paper negatives, 16 collodian glass negatives and
160 stereographs on glass. His subjects included the
temples of Madura, Seringham and Tanjore, the pal-
aces of Madura, Tanjore and Poodoocottah, the forts
at Trichinopoly and Trimium, landscapes around the
beautiful Salem district, and the Elliott Marbles in
Madras. This body of work is considered to be his best
and once more the Government ordered many sets of the
prints. Back in Bangalore, Tripe and his assistants began
printing once again, however a new problem faced the
department. As a result of the Indian Mutiny the British
government had taken over the rule of India from the
East India Company in late 1858. The new Governor
of the Madras Presidency viewed that in such diffi cult
times the Photographic Department was “an article of
high luxury” and soon ordered its closure on grounds of
excessive costs. Tripe was to be allowed to fi nish work
in hand, but there would be no new commissions. Tripe
argued strongly against the decision, but to no avail andTripe, Linnaeus. Basement fo a
Monolith in the Raya Gopuram,
Madura.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gilman Collection, Purchase,
Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
(2005.100.381.1.9) Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.