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Goan Photographer Victor Pereira Documented Empires, War, and West Asia
Victor Pereira was a photographer from Goa who built businesses in Bombay and Gwalior.
He took pictures of important people, including the royal family of Gwalior.
During the First World War, he was hired to photograph a British military campaign in Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia included places that are now part of Iraq.
He photographed soldiers, trains, boats, cities, local people, and the desert.
Some of his pictures showed the campaign and others showed ordinary daily life.
His photographs were printed on postcards and sent to people far away.
They help historians understand how war and empire changed the region.
They also show how Goan professionals traveled and worked across different parts of the world.
Victor Pereira, identified professionally as P Victor, ran studios in Bombay and Gwalior.
His studio photographed the Scindia royal family and a 1914 tiger hunt hosted by Maharaja Madhav Rao Scindia.
During the First World War, Pereira became an official photographer for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force.
He documented military operations, railways, river transport, landscapes, and everyday life across Mesopotamia.
His photographs were distributed as postcards and are now held in military museum collections and private archives.
- Who
- Victor Pereira, known professionally as P Victor, a Goan Roman Catholic photographer.
- What
- He photographed princely India and served as an official photographer for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.
- Where
- His work took place in Bombay, Gwalior, and Mesopotamian locations including Basra, Kurna, Baghdad, and the Shatt al-Arab.
- When
- From at least 1914 through the First World War, including photographs made in 1917 and 1918.
- Why
- He was commissioned to document the military campaign and its people, places, and activities.
Key facts
- Professional name
- P Victor
- Origin
- Goa, then a Portuguese colony
- Studios
- Bombay and Gwalior
- Military assignment
- Official photographer for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force
- Documented locations
- Basra, Kurna, Baghdad, and the Shatt al-Arab
- Photograph distribution
- Many images were reproduced as postcards marked “P Victor & Co., Official Photographers, Mesp Exp Force”
- Known collections
- His photographs are held in military museums in Australia, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere
Quotes
Harry St John Philby
British colonial administrator who worked with Arab revolutionaries and later advised Ibn Saud.
“Spent morning with Victor learning how to develop photographs in a Kodak Developing Tank, and purchased postcard-sized camera and other material.”
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Sources
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