Small palm-sized postcards capture the metamorphosis of Visakhapatnam from a small fishing village to a sprawling metropolis . Photographing these postcards and paintings spanning over two centuries is John Castellas, a fifth-generation Anglo Indian who was born and brought up in Visakhapatnam..
With a collection of photographs, postcards and paintings , John has traced the development and the urbanisation of the city in a way, perhaps, never documented before. Postcards from the early 1800s show Waltair (as the city was then called) as a lush green village with a handful of bungalows on the hills. By the end of 1800s, the area saw rise of several buildings of prominence including St. Joseph’s Convent that came up in 1893.
When arranged in chronological order, the postcards and paintings systematically trace the city’s development and the urbanisation. “The changing demographics and landscape is a direct by-product of the city’s growth and prosperity. One of the major catalysts for the change was the Industrial Revolution, which came to the city when railway lines were laid in the late 1890s, the port being established in 1933 and setting up of an airport,” says John.
Currently based in Australia, John was in the city to showcase his rare collection at an event called ‘Postcards from Vizag’ at The Park.
Globe-trotting for a passion
John has a collection of 1,500 pictures of postcards gathered over a span of four years. He has photographed some that were in the archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, The British Library in London and the Cambridge University. “It all started when I searched for images of Visakhapatna from colonial photographers just as a matter of curiosity and chanced upon an 1875 photograph taken for the Maharaja of Vizianagram,” says John, an engineer by profession. The discovery of one photograph led to another and soon he embarked on a journey to create a collection of pictures that showcased the city’s early days.
But the Vizagapatnam (as the city was called earlier) of those days has very little resemblance to what it is today. Pictures from his collection show that St Alyosius High School was once the tallest building in the One Town Area and had a good view of the sea on one side and the harbour on the other. A series of photographs and postcards show the changing landscape around the Lighthouse and the growth of the city.
The constant change
Incidentally, one of the prized features of his collection is a painting of Visakhapatnam port by Douglas Macpherson. It was featured as a cover spread by The Times London Weekly in June 1933. Titled ‘Vizagapatnam Harbour: The new port of middle eastern India’, it portrayed the then-upcoming port based on official plans.
Landmarks like the Dolphin’s Nose, Scandal Point, the Lighthouse and St Aloysius High School make a frequent appearance, proving that these were places of prominence during those days.
- John’s collection has over 1,500 paintings, postcards and photographs of the city. Some paintings depict the following notable events:
- Destruction of St. Aloysiuis High School due to a cyclone in 1923.
- Engraved ivory boxes featuring Dolphin’s Nose and the city’s coastline.
- A weekly newspaper called The East Coast News, published in Visakhapatnam in 1890s.
- Images of ‘Shamrock’, a house built by an Irish man who settled in the city to escape the Great Famine in Ireland in 1800s.
His collection also features the pioneering postcard publishers C Mooneswamy Mudaliar and Rathnam who, along with Bengal and Nagpur Railway, published postcards highlighting the city’s scenic beauty. The postcards were also a means of communicating events happening in Visakhapatnam as can be seen from two postcards dated November 1923 that give a detailed description of a cyclone that hit the city and affected over 800 people.
Another prized possession is a painting of the city done by a British Army official, Spencer Bone, that showcases the lighthouse, Saint Alyosius and the Dolphin’s Nose. Currently, John is on a quest to find out more about the city’s first English language newspaper, Vizag Spectator . He posts updates of his collections regularly through a Facebook page called Vizagapatam Vizag.
