In an age when digital information is all around, it’s easy to forget that great volumes of historical images of India—journalistic, political, personal, developmental and social—languish in neglect in institutions and homes. Images of the Indian struggle for independence. The early years as a free nation. The dawn of industrial India. Personal collections of royalty and the Raj. Pictures of the common people, of travel and leisure, events and festivities. Scintillating moments in sports. Records of marriage, births, deaths, mourning and celebration. These are not just testimonies of their times, they are invaluable sources of knowledge, an essential part of our cultural heritage, a gateway to understanding the past and acquiring a perspective on the present. The India Photo Archive Foundation has been established with a view to identify, preserve and document such photographic legacies. Towards this end, it aims to restore original photographs and negatives, digitise their contents, preserve, annotate and document them.

The Foundation will encourage the use of such archives in educational, institutional and cultural endeavours. It will work to disseminate the works through exhibitions, publishing and the internet. In doing so, the India Photo Archive Foundation hopes to aid the development of a platform for amateur and professional photography over the ages. Encourage a wider discourse on the content, politics and aesthetics of photography, and contribute towards creating a culture of dialogue on diverse narratives of photographic archives that are treasured as documentary and artistic works, and as markers of the history of photographic technology and processes over time.