Raja Lala Deen Dayal’s photograph “The Great Elephant” was taken by him between 1885 and 1890 in India. Raja Dayal captures an immense elephant standing majestically beside its handler. The emphasis on the sheer scale and power of the elephant, contrasted by the human figure beside it, is a remarkable documentation of natural grandeur and the deep bonds between animals and humans in Indian culture.
Starting as a photographer in the mid-1870s, he soon became the court photographer to the Nizam of Hyderabad, who awarded him the title “Raja”. He was later appointed as the photographer to the Viceroy of India in 1885 and received the Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1897.
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