Ispola and Sultan Kheyl Villages
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Ispola and Sultan Kheyl Villages is a 1879 by John Burke, a Impressionism work, depicting Ireland, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two Afghan villages nestled in a dry valley, with low stone walls and a few scattered tents. This isn’t a painting—it’s one of the first photographs ever taken in Afghanistan. John Burke traveled with British troops during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, but his camera couldn’t freeze battle scenes. Instead, he showed the quiet moments: the land, the camps, and the people caught in the middle. His work helped shape how the world saw the conflict. If you want to see more of Afghanistan’s early history, look up other photographs by John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915).
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.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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