Ameer (Shere Ali)
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
This is a black-and-white photograph of a man in a military uniform. He stands stiffly, one hand resting on a sword. Burke took this picture during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, but it’s not a battle scene. Early cameras couldn’t freeze fast action, so photographers focused on portraits like this one. The man’s name is Shere Ali, a leader in the conflict. Burke was one of the first to document the war this way, giving us faces instead of just landscapes. If you like this kind of quiet history, look up more work by John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915).
