London – For many people, choosing Christmas presents can be a bit of a nightmare. In 1946, the American G.I., journalist, and photographer, Buck Rockwell, solved the problem by producing his own – an archive of 339 photographs of Calcutta (as Kolkata was then known) which he had taken over the previous year. Sadly, there is no record of the lucky recipient, but the archive has survived and will be offered at Bonhams 225-lot Travel and Exploration Sale in London on Tuesday 14 September. It is estimated at £5,000-7,000.

The images are mainly of everyday scenes starting with the very first photograph of Ferrizini's sweet shop described by Rockwell as "the leading tea and cake palace of downtown Calcutta". Most of the photographs are accompanied by a short, typed text explaining, and sometimes commenting on, the scene. Subjects range widely from street activities – dung makers, traffic controllers, shoe shine boys, vendors of oranges, lemonade, tea, drinking water, etc, monkey wallahs, basket weavers – to scenes at the Nimtala Burning Ghat, religious festivals and reflections on the city's poor. Of one photos Rockwell wrote, ""this little girl is probably all of ten years old. I watched her paw through the garbage pile..." By contrast he comments on the Victoria Memorial, "erected at a cost of over 7,600,000 rupees .... pretty much a waste of money."

The archive also includes images from the Bengal Film area of Tollygunge – Rockwell talking to producer B.B. Sircar, the making of a film directed by P.C. Barua, and on set and behind the scenes, perhaps for a production of Kajri in 1945.

Bonhams Head of Books, Manuscripts and Historical photographs, Matthew Haley, said: "Rockwell's photographs – enlivened by his chatty text – give a wonderfully vivid, gritty but slightly idiosyncratic overview of mid-1940s Calcutta in all its aspects. He clearly delighted in the city, especially its street life – but there is nothing sanitised about his gaze. He was well aware of the issues bubbling beneath the surface. The archive is a fascinating and valuable portrait of a city at a moment when great change was in the air."

9 September 2021