Artwork Page for The Descent from Khurd Khyber, Looking Towards Bassaule

Details / Information for The Descent from Khurd Khyber, Looking Towards Bassaule

Series Title: Afghanistan, February 1880

The Descent from Khurd Khyber, Looking Towards Bassaule

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
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Culture
Ireland
Medium
albumen print
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2024.6.ee
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

This album includes some of the earliest photographs of Afghanistan.

Description

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.
A horizontally oriented sepia photograph depicts a rugged mountain pass beneath a hazy sky. A dark-robed man stands on a central dirt path, facing right toward indistinct figures in the middle distance. To the left, a steep, rocky hillside slopes downward. In the background, jagged mountains recede toward a flat plain and pale horizon. The hazy atmosphere softens the craggy landscape, blending distant peaks into the pale light.

The Descent from Khurd Khyber, Looking Towards Bassaule

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
Ireland

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