Western Gateway (Gopuram) of the Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai

1858

Western Gateway (Gopuram) of the Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple, Madurai, 1858. Captain Linnaeus Tripe (British, 1822–1902). Albumenized salt print; image: 38 x 30.2 cm (14 15/16 x 11 7/8 in.); image with black margin: 39.5 x 31.2 cm (15 9/16 x 12 5/16 in.); paper: 39.5 x 31.2 cm (15 9/16 x 12 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2020.208 The tall gateways of this Hindu temple, characteristic of South Indian temple architecture, challenged the camera technology of 1858. Linnaeus Tripe, however, had a new type of device, a wooden box camera with a “rising front,” or bellows. This innovation allowed him to get relatively close to tall structures and capture them without radical vertical distortion. An important pilgrimage site for centuries, this temple continues to draw tens of thousands of worshippers per day.