Photo 671(16)

Inscription: Numbered and signed '282B Stretton' and captioned 'Rangamatti' (in reverse) in the negative.

Genre: Portrait Photography

Group portrait of soldiers on parade. There are several locations named Rangamati in South Asia. Since Stretton was a Calcutta-based photographer, one possibility is the small town of Rangamati on the west bank of the Bhagirathi River, some seven miles south of Berhampore. The Imperial Gazetteer notes that the site of Rangamati 'was at one time selected in preference to Berhampore as a healthy spot for the erection of barracks.' However, another of Stretton's photographs, at print 17 in this collection, shows a mixed group including Burmese, Chin and Indian men and women, which (if these are part of the same series) suggests a location nearer to Burma. It is thus more likely that the present photograph was taken at Rangamati in present-day Bangladesh, situated north-east of Chittagong near Kaptai Lake and then the headquarters of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Although the photographer's reference numbers do not follow a close sequence, it is likely that the other Stretton photographs in this collection (prints 13, 17, 32, 33, 35 and 36) also show this area.