Parallel worlds

Irish Arts Review

Parallel worldsAuthor(s): Peter MurraySource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 29, No. 3 (AUTUMN [SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2012]),pp. 84-87Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23278469 .

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Parallel

worlds Peter Murray finds similarities

between the fictional character Kim

and 19th-century photographer John

Burke, whose path in Afghanistan, has

been retraced by Simon Norfolk

84 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I AUTUMN 2012

Parallel

worlds Peter Murray 1



PARALLEL WORLDS PHOTOGRAPHY

In

1882, Rudyard Kipling travelled to Lahore, to take up a job as a journalist with the Civil and Military Gazette.

Three years later, the Irish photographer John Burke set

up a studio in that same city, now the capital of Pakistan.

Even if they did not meet personally, Kipling was familiar

with Burke's photographs, which included portraits and

carte-de-visite, as well as views of the mountain ranges,

palaces and temples of North-West India. On 6 December

1886, Kipling reviewed Burke's photographs of the Viceroy and other dignitaries arriving for the 'Lahore Gathering',

commenting favourably that Burke's sitters seemed more at

ease than was the case with most portrait photographs. The

son of an Irish soldier who died while serving in the Indian

army, Burke had been raised an orphan in the 1850s in the

border town of Peshawar, where he was apprenticed to a

chemist and learned the art of photography. His large plate

views, taken in the 1860s for the Indian Archaeological

Survey, and later, when he accompanied the 1879 invasion of

Afghanistan, were popular in India, and even more so in

England, where there was great curiosity about these out

posts of Empire. Although he is thought to have come from

Co Wicklow, Burke named his house and studio 'Kinturk', which may be a reference to Kanturk in Co Cork. Published

in 1901, Kipling's novel Kim, has as its eponymous hero the

orphaned child of an Irish Catholic soldier who dies in India, who grows up a self-reliant child in Lahore. While much of

the novel is autobiographical, (Kipling's father was head of

the art school and museum at Lahore), the parallels between

the fictional hero Kim and Burke are also close. The essence

of the novel is the young hero's search for identity, torn

between the Catholic fathers of the boarding school, the

Masonic school of the army, the street traders of Lahore, and

the spiritual world of the Tibetan Lama. In the end, Kim

1 JOHN BURKE Ic. 1S43-1900I SONS OF NOWROZKHAN Courtesy of National Media Museum, Bradford. UK

2 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 A DE-MINING TEAM FROM THE MINE DETECTION CENTRE IN KABUL WITH A MEMBER OF THE GERMAN POLICE WHO IS MENTORING THEM 2010 © Courtesy the Artist

1

AUTUMN 2012 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 85

1 JOHN BURKE (c. 1843-1900) SONS OF NOWROZKHAN Courtesy of National Media Museum, Bradford, UK

2 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 A DE-MINING TEAM FROM THE MINE DETECTION CENTRE IN KABUL WITH A MEMBER OF THE GERMAN POLICE WHO 15 MENTORING THEM 2010 © Courtesy the Artist



3 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 "Some of the nonsensical property development taking place in Kabul. This district of the city, Karte Char Chateh, is remembered by Kabulis as that part of the bazaar which was burned by the British in 1842 as collective punishment for the killing of the British Envoy. The fires still burned when the British retreated two days later' 2010 © Courtesy of the Artist

L JOHN BURKE (c.1843-1900) VIEW FROM FORT ONSLOW SHOWING THE EAST END OF BEMARU DEFENCES AND SURROUNDING COUNTRY 1878-1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

5 JOHN BURKE (c.1843-1900) SHAMSHERE BRIDGE AND MUSJID, ON THE CABUL RIVER (SIC) NEAR DEHMAZANG GORGE, NORTH WEST CORNER OF CITY 1878-1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

6 JOHN BURKE (c.1843 1900) JELLALLABAD, THE MAIN STREET SHOWING COVERED BAZAAR 1878 1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

7 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 A dumping ground for an abandoned Russian-era bomber that has now been incorporated into the car park of Shamshad TV, a new media company supported heavily by American money' 2010 © Courtesy the Artist

86 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I AUTUMN 2012

3 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 "Some of the nonsensical property development taking place in Kabul. This district of the city, Karte Char Chateh, is remembered by Kabulis as that part of the bazaar which was burned by the British in 1842 as collective punishment for the killing of the British Envoy. The fires still burned when the British retreated two days later' 2010 © Courtesy of the Artist

U JOHN BURKE (c. 1843-1900) VIEW FROM FORT ONSLOW SHOWING THE EAST END OF BEMARU DEFENCES AND SURROUNDING COUNTRY 1878-1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

5 JOHN BURKE (c.1843-1900) SHAMSHERE BRIDGE AND MUSJID, ON THE CABUL RIVER ISIC] NEAR DEHMAZANG GORGE, NORTH WEST CORNER OF CITY 1878-1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

6 JOHN BURKE (c.1843 1900) JELLALLABAD, THE MAIN STREET SHOWING COVERED BAZAAR 1878 1880 Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography, London

7 SIMON NORFOLK b.1963 'A dumping ground for an abandoned Russian-era bomber that has now been incorporated into the car park of Shamshad TV, a new media company supported heavily by American money- 2010 © Courtesy the Artist



PARALLEL WORLDS PHOTOGRAPHY

becomes a spy for the British in Afghanistan, helping to frus

trate Russian attempts to win control in that region. In the

opening chapter of Kim, the curator of the Lahore museum

shows the Tibetan Lama photographs of remote Buddhist

temples. Kipling's literary descriptions are almost certainly

based on Burke's albums. In the 1860s and 1870s, Burke had

used the magic of the albumen print to record these temples,

and also to win the respect of Afghan and Punjabi tribal

chieftains, who marvelled at the power of the large brass and

mahogany camera to record their bearded faces and impres

sive costumes. Burke's abilities were also recognized and

applauded by Anglo-Indian officers and administrators, and

so he carved out a unique position for himself, moving eas

ily amidst competing cultures obsessed with race and caste,

in a manner not dissimilar to the fictional hero Kim. The

argument has been made that because of Burke's Irish

Catholic background, he was able to remain somehow apart

from the colonial 'gaze', and record tribal chieftains on

terms of equality with Anglo-Indian officers and administra

tors in portraits that would have been unthinkable for an

English photographer. This may be true, but the few images

that do exist of Burke show him sporting the tropical suit

and pith helmet, typical of the English 19th-century

explorer. Burke was by no means unique in his background;

Irish participation in the conquest and governance of colo

nial India was extensive. The first, ill-fated, invasion of

Afghanistan had been led by an Anglo-Irish general, John Peter Murray is Director of the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

Keane, whose family hailed

from Cappoquin, while

Frederick Roberts, whose

family were also from Co.

Waterford, led the second

invasion four decades later. It

was on this second campaign

that Burke made his lasting

mark as a photographer; he

accompanied Roberts' armies

as a semi-official war artist,

recording the people, cities

and landscapes of a region 5

that today remains a grim arena for such ill-fated military

adventures. Burke's re-discovery by Omar Khan, author of

From Kashmir to Kabul, and more recently his championing

by contemporary photographer Simon Norfolk, gives pause

for thought, as his powerful images of Afghanistan in 1878

80 are shown alongside recent images taken by Norfolk, who

has followed in the pioneering Irish photographer's footsteps,

recording those same cities, peoples and landscapes a century

later. Norfolk spent over a year tracing Burke's travels, and

the contrasts, and comparisons, between his photographs of

the people and landscapes of Afghanistan in 2011, and those

taken by Burke in the late 19th century, are a witness to hero

ism, devotion to duty and to the folly of imperialism. ■



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