T Roger Fenton Inner Templar and First Accredited War Photographer

ROGER FENTON: INNER TEMPLAR AND THE FIRST ACCREDITED WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

By The Sub-Treasurer

The Valley of the Shadow of Death in the Crimea, possibly with cannonballs artfully placed on the road

© Public Domain, Roger Fenton (1819–1869)

When I was Ambassador in Hungary in 2008, 12 prints of Roger Fenton’s photographs – five of them unknown to modern experts – were discovered in the library of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest (where many lawyer friends studied). The prints reflected two of his main themes – British landscapes and romanticised pictures of life in the Middle East. A small exhibition was mounted, and I was pleased to be asked to write the foreword to the accompanying brochure.

The story of how the prints came to be in the ELTE library – or indeed in Hungary – is not yet known. But this important British pioneer, whose work can be said to have changed the world, was the photographer of the British royal court. And for many centuries the main contacts between distant Christian countries like Britain and Hungary tended to take place within the framework of royal relationships. So perhaps it was in this context that these photographs arrived there. For me, it was a good excuse to flag up our bilateral cultural links. (As it happened, the British Embassy was showing an exhibition of photographs, hopefully more realistic than Fenton’s, of Muslims living in modern Britain at that same time.)

Seated ‘Odalisque’, one of Fenton’s romanticised ideas of Muslim life, carefully staged in a studio

This important British pioneer, whose work can be said to have changed the world, was the photographer of the British royal court.

And there my interest in Fenton might have ended, had I not discovered recently that he had been a member of the Inner Temple. Following his comfortable upbringing in the wonderfully named Crimble Hall in Lancashire, Fenton was admitted in 1839 at the age of 20 when studying English, mathematics, Greek and Latin at University College London. (He graduated with a first-class BA degree.) He began to read law there in 1841 and eventually qualified as a solicitor in 1847, having been distracted along the way by becoming a painter – he studied in Paris and later exhibited his paintings at the Royal Academy. Fenton was called to the Bench in 1851, but it is not clear that he practised as a barrister until 1862 – it is what he did in between those dates which makes him famous.

Fenton became one of the first great photographers, though he spent less than a decade in the 1850s in the profession. He seems to have taken this direction as a result of a visit to the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and seeing the photographs on display. He then studied technique in Paris, had his first photographic exhibition in the UK in 1852, and became founder and first secretary of the Photographic Society (later the Royal Photographic Society).

Fenton became one of the first great photographers, though he spent less than a decade in the 1850s in the profession.

In 1854, Fenton became the world’s first accredited war photographer and, in 1855, he travelled to the Crimea to cover the war with Russia. His cameras and wet plates were large and cumbersome, and he was therefore restricted in what he could capture – no action shots as such, but he recorded the life and conditions of the serving troops in considerable detail, as well as the local landscapes. Despite cholera, depression, facing high temperatures and breaking several ribs, he produced over 350 usable negatives of the campaign – fascinating studies, but not commercially successful.

Several of Fenton’s pictures from Balmoral feature gillies, the Scottish gamekeepers who have for centuries acted as hunting and fishing guides

© Royal Photographic Society Collection / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Though there is some controversy to this day about aspects of his work on the Crimean War – not least the fact that he was an uncritical observer – he trailblazed the role of war photographer. In this role, he combined innovation, artistic merit and interest, bringing visibility to a major public issue of the day. Fenton was in many ways ahead of his time. His work is often included in collections of photographs that changed the world.

He recorded the life and conditions of the serving troops in considerable detail, as well as the local landscapes. Despite cholera, depression, facing high temperatures and breaking several ribs, he produced over 350 usable negatives of the campaign.

After his return from the Crimea, Fenton travelled widely around the UK photographing architecture and landscapes, in particular exploring the lyricism of Scotland (and Wales). Another of his themes was studio studies showing a romanticised and idealised picture of Muslim and Oriental life, often featuring his friends and models in rather obviously posed but often exotic (and occasionally mildly erotic) shots. He balanced uneasily between the world of ‘trade’ photographers and those, for example in the Royal Photographic Society, who rejected any thought that there should be commercial gain in photography. This is probably why he gave up after about a decade. The recognition of photography as art came later.

Fenton died in 1869, aged only 50. His grave and that of his wife were demolished exactly a century later when the Potters Bar church where they were buried was deconsecrated for development.

Greg Dorey CVO

Sub-Treasurer