Exhibition showing rare photos of British Raj to open in Edinburgh AN EXHIBITION of rarely seen photographs of the British Raj opens at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery tomorrow. Lucknow To Lahore: Fred Bremner's vision of India charts the career of commercial photographer Bremner who left Scotland for India in 1882 and spent the next 40 years there. The 24 images on show at the gallery in Edinburgh are printed from the original glass negatives. They include portraits of native aristocrats and images of fishermen on the River Indus. The exhibition aims to illustrate how imperial expansion in the 19th century provided photographers with stimulation, great opportunities and rewards. Sheila Astante, migration stories curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to catch a glimpse of rarely seen images of the Indian empire. Fred Bremner was one of the first photographers to capture the very north-western edge of the British Raj. An accomplished photographer, he had an eye for dynamic compositions. This intimate exhibition of his work offers an extraordinary insight into how one Scot viewed that far-off land known as the Indian empire. Bremner, born in 1863 in Aberchirder, Aberdeenshire and who worked in his father's photographic studio in Banff, accepted an offer to work with his brother-in-law GW Lawrie, an established photographer in Lucknow, India. His assignments took him across India and in 1889 he set up a studio in Karachi. Bremner travelled vast distances and worked in rarely photographed areas, creating a record of Imperial India's rural life, landscapes and people. The exhibition, which runs until April 7, opens a season of photography at the gallery this autumn.