Pass Near Ali Musjid, Showing Tortang
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Pass Near Ali Musjid, Showing Tortang is a 1879 by John Burke, a Impressionism work, depicting Ireland, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a dry, rocky valley with a winding road and a few soldiers standing near low stone walls. This photo was taken during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, but it doesn’t show fighting. Early cameras couldn’t catch fast action, so photographers like Burke documented the places where battles happened instead. The quiet scene makes the war feel strangely still. Look up more of John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915) to see how he shaped early war photography.
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.
Your cart is empty
Explore artworks →
