John Murray, a doctor in the India Medical Service, took up photography in the late 1840s. While stationed near Agra, he produced hundreds of large-format studies of Mughal architecture in northwest India, including many photographs of the Taj Mahal. Here, he pictured India’s most iconic monument on the bank of the Yamuna River. For practical reasons, Murray used paper negatives when photographing on location, rather than the newer, sharper, and faster process of glass negatives, which required an on-site darkroom.