Artwork Page for Upper Bala Hissar, from West

Details / Information for Upper Bala Hissar, from West

Series Title: Afghanistan, February 1880

Upper Bala Hissar, from West

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.xx
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
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 albumen print photograph in brown tones depicts a stone fortress atop a steep, rocky hill. In the lower left, small figures and bare trees surround low structures. A notched stone wall with rounded towers climbs the left slope toward the central citadel. This summit structure features large, interconnected circular towers against a pale sky. Distant, barren mountains line the horizon beyond the rugged, sun-drenched landscape.

Upper Bala Hissar, from West

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
Ireland

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