Cleveland Museum of Art

The Descent from Khurd Khyber, Looking Towards Bassaule

John Burke

Date

1878–80

Medium

albumen print

Culture

Ireland

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The subject of this album is the Second Anglo-Afghan War, which was fought from 1878 to 1880. John Burke was the first photographer to photograph extensively in Afghanistan and the main photographer covering that conflict. The technology of the day did not permit action shots of battles. As is usual for early conflict photography, the pictures are landscapes of the sites of momentous incidents, views of camps and civil and military infrastructure, and portraits of the soldiers and their leaders. This album includes some of the earliest photographs of Afghanistan.

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