Check Out The Bourne & Shepherd Building

The four-storied Gothic structure that stands next to the  Metropolitan studio building on SN Banerjee Road used to house one of oldest photo studios in the world – Bourne & Shepherd. The building was called ‘Photographe’ but sadly the studio was shut down in 2016. It was established in 1840 by the famous Calcutta photographer William Howard from Britain and was named Bourne & Shepherd in 1866 when the British photographer and traveler duo – Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd – took control of the business. It was the most successful commercial firm in 19th- and early 20th-century India, with agencies all over India and outlets in London and Paris. Some of its photographs hang from the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Portraits in London, the Cambridge University library.