Roger Fenton as a Prominent British Photographer - Essay Example

“In 1853, he was appointed as the official photographer of the Crimean War, taking 360 photographs in all. Although his pictures only depicted the "acceptable" parts of the conflict, they were the first to capture the mundane aspects of warfare” (Roger Fenton Biography). He died on August 8, 1869. This paper analyses the pictures taken by Roger Fenton concerning subject matter, composition, framing, and intent.

Even though Roger Fenton has taken more than 360 war photographs, he deliberately avoided the pictures of dead, injured, or mutilated soldiers. At the same time, he was successful in portraying or revealing the atrocities of war with the help of the photographed landscapes at or near the war front. The Crimean War between Britain and Russia was portrayed beautifully by Roger Fenton. One of the most famous war photographs taken during the Crimean War by Fenton is known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. British soldiers faced a lot of humiliating defeats in the place shown in the above photograph. Even though dead bodies or injured people are not visible in this picture, the viewers will get a haunting experience after watching this picture. “Borrowing from the Twenty-third Psalm of the Bible, the Valley of Death was named by British soldiers who came under constant shelling there” (Valley of the Shadow of Death). Valley of the Shadow of Death is considered to be the masterpiece of Roger Fenton. It is still considered as an important piece of war photography. The theme of this picture is the view of a cannonball-strewn road near Sevastopol.

This photograph appears to be simple at first look; however close analysis of this picture may present a haunting experience to the viewers. “The image offers a kind of visual equivalent to Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. In it, the poet pays tribute to the six hundred British cavalrymen who died in this same valley on 25 October 1854” (Roger Fenton: The Valley of the Shadow of Death)
Fenton believed that the perceptive eye of the camera could record "all the mighty world." “Always exploring new subjects and testing the limits of his practice, Fenton photographed Britain's ruined abbeys and stately homes, Russian architecture, romantic landscapes, the collections of the British Museum, the Crimean War, the royal family, as well as "Orientalist scenes" and still lives (All the mighty world)

To conclude, Roger Fenton was a photographer who tried to educate the world regarding the atrocities of war with the help of war photographs. Even though he rarely photographed the pictures of dead or wounded soldiers, his war photographs speak volumes about the destructive elements of wars. Read More