‘The photographer’s art’, Afghanistan, 1880 (b/w photo)

‘The photographer’s art’, Afghanistan, 1880. Photograph by John Burke, 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), 1880. The photographic panorama is extremely difficult to execute. Matching lines, exposure and lighting requires the highest degree of skill from the photographer. In his panoramic view of Kabul in 1880, however, John Burke (1845-1900), a former British soldier, shows himself a master of the art form. The photograph is taken from the Asmai Heights to the west of Kabul, looking south and east. Below, to the right, the Kabul river winds through the Deh Mazang gorge to the Chardeh plain. Above the gorge the jagged peak of the Sher Darwaza ridge dominates the right-hand panel of the picture; its eastern ridge tails down towards the Bala Hissar in the middle distance. To the north of Kabul, at the panorama’s left hand edge, is the Sherpur Cantonment, in which Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts’ Kabul Field Force spent the winter of 1879-80, besieged by vastly superior numbers of Afghans. From an album of 101 photographs by John Burke, 1878-1880.