Cabulese
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see soldiers in red coats standing beside a dusty road, with low hills and a few tents in the background. Burke wasn’t painting—he was using a camera. This is one of the first photographs ever taken in Afghanistan during a war. The men look stiff because the camera needed long exposure times; no one could move or the picture would blur. If you want to see more early war photography, look up John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915).
