End of the Defile, Looking Back at Ali Musjid
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a black-and-white photo of a narrow mountain pass, soldiers marching away, and a few figures looking back. This isn’t a painting—it’s one of the first war photos ever taken. John Burke lugged heavy glass plates and a darkroom tent across Afghanistan to document the Second Anglo-Afghan War. He couldn’t snap quick action shots, so he framed quiet moments like this: the calm after battle, the land itself bearing witness. To see more early war photography, look up John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915).
