General View of Dakka

John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915)

1878–80

Medium
albumen print
Classification
Photograph
Culture
Ireland
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Photography
Credit line
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

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.