Roger Fenton

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Roger Fenton

English, 1819-1869

BiographyRoger Fenton was a significant figure in the early artistic, technical, and organizational development of photography in England. Best known as the first war photographer as a result of his pioneering images of the Crimean War, he was also an accomplished landscape, architectural, and portrait photographer (particularly of the royal family), master of the still-life who played a central role in founding England's Royal Photographic Society.

Born into an upper-middle-class, Northern English family, he received a general Bachelor of Arts from University College, London (1840), and briefly pursued a law career before studying painting in Paris and London during the 1840s. His interest in the emerging medium of photography most likely stemmed from his visit to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in London (1851) and a subsequent visit to the newly formed Société Héliographique in Paris that same year. After publishing an article advocating for a similar British organization in The Chemist (March 1852), the London Society of Arts named Fenton to the provisional committee that established the Photographic Society of London (later the Royal Photographic Society) in January 1853. During this time, he also learned a variation on the French photographer Gustave Le Gray's (1820-1884) waxed paper negative process and began experimenting with the medium.

Fenton quickly gained recognition for his earliest known photographs of Russian landmarks taken during the Fall of 1852 and for romantic images of major British churches, abbeys, and castles that showcased his mastery of light and composition. In 1854, the British Museum appointed Fenton as their first official photographer, responsible for photographing their galleries and collection. He also received a commission to make portraits of the Royal Family that same year. However, Fenton's most enduring achievement derives from the Manchester publisher Thomas Agnew and Sons commission to photograph the Crimean War (1853-56) between March-June of 1855. His extensive treatment of the war – the first such use of photography – included approximately 360 images of the British regiments, environs and carefully composed scenes wartime activities. Fenton endured rampant disease and other hardships with five large cameras, 700 glass plates, and two assistants. For various reasons, including the technical limitations of photography at that time, the commercial nature of this project, and his patronage from Queen Victoria, Fenton's compositions did not include overt scenes of fighting, disease, or death. By the time Fenton returned to London, exhibited (September 1855), and published (1856) his photographs, the war was effectively over, and the venture was not the lasting commercial success that he and his publisher anticipated. Despite this, Fenton’s groundbreaking project paved the way for future wartime photographers and he continues to receive the designation of the first war photographer. His series of images from Crimea, while notably subjective, reflected a significant expansion of the dissemination of information about war.

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