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August 1, 2011
I October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a series of new photographs in Afghanistan, which takes its cue from the work of nineteenth-century Irish photographer John Burke. Norfolk’s photographs reimagine or respond to Burke’s Afghan war scenes in the context of the contemporary conflict. John Burke's photographs of the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880 were among the first ever taken in Afghanistan.
John Burke, Khyber pass, Afghanistan, 1878
Burke accompanied British forces during the invasion that became the Second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878-1880 producing a small number of albums of prints for sale to the general public.
Throughout 2001 Simon Norfolk worked extensively in Afghanistan producing a now seminal body of work titled Afghanistan Chronotopia (Dewi Lewis, 2002), in which he contrasted the hardware of warfare, against the beautiful, yet rugged mountain and desert landscape in which this vicious conflict was waged. Working in colour with a large-format camera, he enters into collaboration with his 19th century colleague.
Norfolk says that ‘Imperialism is what interests and enrages me more than anything else,’ says Norfolk, who believes that todays war should be considered the Fourth Anglo-Afghan War (the first was fought between 1839 to 1842; the second 1878 to 1880; and the third in 1919).
John Burke, Timur Shah's Mosque, 1879
Burke’s photographs are use the technology of the wet plate collodion process that produces creamy browns and reds, a spectrum of color and movement in the photograph that has no equivalent today. The image is textured, detailed, and yet, soft and silken.
Norfolk says that his:
2001 book was informed by romantic paintings of the 18th century, with their golden light of progress. Then, despite the destruction, there seemed to be the beginning of some kind of opportunity, a better future perhaps; rational, perfectible. A liminal moment at the close of one thing and the beginning of something new. To use the golden kiss of the dawn light seemed the right approach at the time. Now it seems completely inappropriate: my emotional response now is much more mixed; more uncertain. In 2010/11 I preferred to shoot in pre-dawn or post-sunset light, using that blue palette as a way of venting my disappointment and disillusionment with what has happened.
Norfolk wasn’t interested in replicating old cameras and lenses or finding precise fields of view. He was interested to see the kind of ground that Burke covered, how did he get to where he took his pictures.
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