John Burke (photographer)

He was born in Ireland, around 1843, where he was a tradesman.

He applied for a job in the British Army as an official photographer but travelled to Afghanistan at his own expense[1][2] using heavy cameras that would have needed transporting on pack animals[3] through mountainous regions.

Burke was the first significant photographer of Afghanistan.

[citation needed] He died in 1900.

Burke's photographs have been grouped in albums with those of Benjamin Simpson and other photographers, so definitive attribution is not possible for some of his works.