Sherpur. The Laager and Abatts, West Corner, Showing the Kotal and Hills
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a quiet Afghan hillside with a ring of British supply wagons and a few soldiers standing guard. The wagons form a rough fort called a laager. This photo was taken during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. John Burke was one of the first photographers to work in Afghanistan. The slow cameras of the 1870s couldn’t freeze battle, so he framed still moments like this—camps, roads, and empty hills. To see more early war photography, look up the subject ireland. (Burke also worked there, and the same album holds those pictures.)
