John P. Nicholas contributed photographs to the Madras Photographic Society Exhibition in 1858. He opened a studio in Madras in 1861 and the studio existed into the early 20th century. By that time Nicholas had returned to England in the 1890s. He also opened a studio in Ootacamund around 1868. At the Calcutta Exhibition of 1883/84 in the Madras Court, Nicholas exhibited over twenty "Photographic Views of Southern India". Nicholas‘ photographs are very different from his contemporaries.