Ratnagar is credited with initiating the pictorialist movement in British India. In 1932, along with six other reknowned artist photographers, he founded 'Camera Pictorialists of Bombay' for the advancement of pictorialist photography and the recognition of photography as a fine art in India.

Ratganar would almost certainly have been in contact with photographers working in Australia. His work, and many others in this exhibition, was acquired by the Sydney Camera Circle, a group of photographers in the early 20th century who adopted many of the characteristics associated with Pictorialism. The Sydney Camera Circle gift to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with its inclusion of work by famous international pictorial photographers illustrates how this aesthetic, with its soft hues and artistic outlook, was a world-wide phenomenon and how Australian photographers were well aware of the styles and attitudes of their international colleagues.