This volume presents, for the first time, the work and career of photographic pioneer James Waterhouse (1842–1922). From his early career in Central India in the 1860s, through to his technical achievements in Britain in the 1900s, this comprehensive account traces the career of an enigmatic figure devoted to the medium, acknowledged by his peers as “the father of photo-mechanical work”, yet who today remains unjustly neglected within the world of photography. Waterhouse was deputed to photograph rulers, tribes, communities and archaeological subjects in the Central Provinces. Among the results, many of which are reproduced in this publication, are perhaps the first photographs of the Buddhist site of Sanchi, and a series of remarkable portraits from the court of the Begum of Bhopal, as well as of significant noblemen and groups in the area. The Waterhouse Albums also offers an essay on Waterhouse’s indefatigable experiments with photographic processes and his crucial work at the Survey of India in Calcutta. Appendices include transcripts of Waterhouse’s personal narrative of his travels and photographic projects. With contributions from Rosemary Crill, Michael Gray and Shaharyar M Khan.