Roger Fenton (1819-69)

Roger Fenton (1819-69) was a photographer at the cutting edge of technology in his time. Fenton became the first president of the British Photographic Society and was working in a war zone with a camera 10 years after it was invented, documenting the carnage of the Crimean War

The huge mortars in this image were part of the British defences in the Crimea. Fenton had to ask people to stand still because such a slow ISO was the norm. This type of image had never been seen by the public before and showed them what was happening in a very new way. It was the viral video of it's day.


National Media Museum, Photographing Conflict, Roger Fenton


The image of the 'valley of the shadow of death' is a seminal image in war photography but also a controversial one because the two versions that exist show that Fenton repositioned the cannon balls in the second version to make the image more compelling.