Roger Fenton (1819-1869)

" The photographic career of Roger Fenton (1819-1869) lasted only eleven years, but during that time he became the most famous photographer in Britain. Part of the second generation of photographers who came to maturity in the 1850s—only a decade after the process was invented—Fenton strove to elevate the new medium to the status of a fine art and to establish it as a respected profession. He was the first official photographer to the British Museum and one of the founders of the Photographic Society, later named the Royal Photographic Society, an organization he hoped would help establish the medium's importance in modern life."

source: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/fenton/index.shtm

Roger Fenton
Self-Portrait, February 1852Albumen silver print from glass negative
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

source: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/fenton/exhibition.shtm

Roger Fenton, Seated Odalisque, 1858

Roger Fenton, Discobolos, 1857
source: British Museum

The Crimean War Photographs

Marcus Sparling, full-length portrait,
seated on Roger Fenton's photographic van.salted paper; 17.5 × 16.5 cm., 1855

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roger_Fenton%27s_waggon.jpg

The valley of the shadow of death
Fenton, Roger, 1819-1869, photographer, 1855,
salted paper ; 28 x 36 cm.
Dirt road in ravine scattered with cannonballs.
Part of Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection,
Library of Congress

Mortar batteries in front of Picquet house Light Division
Fenton, Roger, 1819-1869, photographer, 1855
salted paper ; 24 x 35.5 cm.
Photo shows five men and three mortars at a mortar battery with bomb-proof shelter.
Part of: Fenton, Roger, 1819-1869. Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection,
Library of Congress Collection

link: Roger Fenton works at George Eastman House Archive

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Introduction to the History of Photography

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