Groepsportret van Engelse militairen in uniform, links van het midden majoor Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari 1878 - 1890

This group portrait of English military officers, including Major Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari, was made by John Burke sometime in the late 19th century. The artwork is a photograph, a process that depends on the interaction of light and chemistry, capturing a specific moment in time. The material qualities of photography – the tones, the focus, the contrast – all contribute to its aesthetic. The photograph's sepia tone and soft focus evoke a sense of nostalgia, while its composition and arrangement of the figures convey a sense of formality and authority. Photography was, at this time, a technology closely tied to burgeoning capitalism and mass media; a tool for documentation, propaganda, and the dissemination of images. In its own way, this image encapsulates a moment in the history of empire-building, made possible by labor, technological advancement, and political will. The photograph, a medium often overlooked as “craft,” is revealed to be a crucial artifact of its time.