Behsudi Hazara Chiefs (Hazaras of Behsud)

Photograph, a posed group portrait of Besudi Hazara chieftains taken by John Burke in 1879-80, possibly at Kabul in Afghanistan. Burke accompanied the British army into Afghanistan in 1878 and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province, recording military and topographical scenes as well as the peoples of the country during the Second Afghan War (1878-80). Burke also photographed many darbars or meetings that took place between British combat leaders and Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His two-year Afghan expedition produced a visual document which resulted in his achieving significance as the photographer of the region of the Great Game (the Anglo-Russian territorial rivalry).