Afghanistan

What is an Article?

Attock Bridge Inside
An article is a PDF or Word document or set of web pages that describe new research or information in the field of Raj photography or vintage imagery from roughly 1848 through 1947. Conquest through independence. Use the Create Content button, the Create Article.Read more

War Photography 1848-1947

Chiefs
War Photography in Nineteenth-Century India and Afghanistan traces the simultaneous arrival of the gun and camera in the north west of the subcontinent. The essay first appeared in the book Reverie and Reality, based on the Ehrenfeld Collection in San Francisco.Read more

A Shocking Postcard

Habibullah Kalakani
As the situation in modern Afghanistan (and Pakistan) continues to deteriorate, I cannot help but remember one of the most extraordinary postcards in my collection. It shows the dead body of the so-called "Bandit King" of Afghanistan, Habibullah Kalakani, after he was killed on the 13th of October 1929, almost exactly 70 years ago.Read more

Old Afghanistan

Amir Abdur Rehman
A unique website based on a set of family-owned photographs, postcards and other images rescued from the recent years of turmoil in Afghanistan. Over 500 pieces are currently online. The exhibition is edited by Khalid Ziai, from whose extended family many images come from.Read more

On Service in India

On Service in India: The Mein Family Photographs 1870-1901
Author: Peter Duckers
Publisher: Tempus (2000)
Binding: Paperback, 96 pages

A nice collection of photographs, many by John Burke of the Second Afghan War, from a prominent British Indian family collection. Full of interesting biographical facts and images.Read more

The Photographer

The Photographer
Once in a while a book comes along that shakes up your perception of how much books still have to develop despite the rapid rise of digital media.

This story of French doctors in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion in the 1980s is outside the field of Raj photography. Yet it points to a direction which could make Raj photography so much more accessible: the comic book.Read more

The Man Outside: Afghanistan

Jalalabad
The Man Outside: The Problem with the External Perception of Afghanistan in Historical Sources by Marcus Shadi investigates the perception of Afghanistan by Westerners since the 18th century.Read more

Khyber Drones 1932

[inline:drone-view-1.jpg="Human Drone Afridi Houses 1937"|class="left"]This human drone photograph was taken by an R.A.F. camera in the 1930s and was part of the "Tribal Directory" project undertaken by the British Indian army to support extensive air campaigns in NWFP.Read more

From Kashmir to Kabul

From Kashmir to Kabul: The Photographs of Burke and Baker, 1860-1900
Author: Omar A. Khan
Publisher: Prestel Publishing (2002)
Binding: Hardcover, 208 pages

As international events draw attention to the people and landscapes of Afghanistan and Pakistan, images of these war-torn countries are becoming increasingly familiar. The harsh beauty of the region has been luring photographers since the Victorian age, the most famous of whom were William Baker and John Burke. Their photographs of the "Great Game" - a phrase coined by Rudyard Kipling for the power struggles of British and Russian imperialism - were an inspiration to the writer, and remain some of the most poignant images of the British Empire.Read more

Syndicate content