An Indian family

All of the figures in this photograph pose stiffly, only three of them looking directly into the camera. Their awkwardness is not unusual in photographs from this time. Many photographers expressed frustration at not getting their subjects to relax. "Their idea of giving life to a picture was to stand bolt upright, with their arms down as stiff as pokers, their chins turned up as if they were standing to have their throats cut," stated the prominent British photographer Samuel Bourne. The subjects' apparent unease with being photographed belies the probability that this photograph was a commissioned work.

The garb of the figures suggests that they were a family from the Western Indian region of Maharashtra. The women from this region drape their saris differently from other Indian women, choosing to wear them shorter.