Artwork Page for Untitled (Landscape Scene)

Details / Information for Untitled (Landscape Scene)

Series Title: Afghanistan, February 1880

Untitled (Landscape Scene)

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.yy
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 albumen print depicts a sepia-toned mountain landscape. In the foreground right, a tall, dark cedar tree reaches into a pale sky. A forested ridge slopes down from the left toward a central peaked mountain. Hazy layers of hills recede toward a distant, flat plain. In the upper third, a monochromatic, misty sky obscures the horizon, emphasizing the atmospheric depth of the vast, receding wilderness.

Untitled (Landscape Scene)

1878–80

John Burke

(Irish, 1845–1915)
Ireland

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