Biography: Documentary photographer Federico Peliti

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Federico Peliti (1844-1914) was an Italian photographer. He was born near Turin, in Northern Italy, and went to India in 1868 as a caterer to the Viceroy, the Earl of Mayo. After the assassination of the Viceroy, he established himself as an independent caterer and hotel director, with establishments in Calcutta and Simla.

His Simla restaurant is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Phantom Reekshaw” (1888), and, in passing, in his poem “Divided Destinies”. He had been trained as a sculptor in his youth, and while sculpting from time to time as a hobby, he became a more and more passionate photographer as time went on. A great part of his production now belongs to the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome. “Peliti’s veranda” in Simla is mentioned in Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Against the Day”.