Randolph Bezzant Holmes (1888-1973)

An oblong folio album of 28 silver gelatin prints, image size 23.7 x29cm (or the reverse), pasted down onto album pages recto/verso, overall measuring 33.2 x39.8cm, each numbered and signed in the negative. Subjects include views of villages and surrounding areas in the Kurram Valley; a group portrait of Pashtuns; military encampment scenes; a panoramic view of the Piewar Kotal; Jamrud and the Khyber Pass; an aerial view of a Shinwari village, Khyber; and two panoramas each mounted over two facing mounts. Housed in brown Morocco leather boards, with black leather spine and corners. Randall Bezzant Holmes was a commercial photographer who continued the photographic business established by his father, William D. Holmes in Peshawar in the 1890s. He was later employed as an official photographer of the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and travelled with the British Colonial Army through the North-West Frontier.