South Wall, Bala Hissar & Residency
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
South Wall, Bala Hissar & Residency is a 1879 by John Burke, a Impressionism work, depicting Ireland, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You’re looking at a quiet hillside with stone walls and a few British tents. The sky is hazy, the light flat—no drama, just the place itself. This photo is from the Second Anglo-Afghan War, taken by one of the first photographers to work in Afghanistan. Because cameras were slow, Burke couldn’t shoot battles. Instead, he documented the land and the camps where history happened. If you want to see more of this kind of early war photography, look up 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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