As recent events draw attention to the people and landscapes of Afghanistan and Pakistan, images of these wartorn countries are becoming increasingly familiar. The harsh beauty of the region has been luring photographers since the Victorian age, the most famous of whom were William Baker and John Burke. Their photographs of the Great Game ? a phrase coined by Rudyard Kipling for the power struggles of British and Russian imperialism ? were an inspiration to the writer, and remain some of the most poignant images of the British Empire.