The Artist's Van

“Fenton’s pictures from the Crimea thus operate under technological and ideological constraints. The War Office forbade the photography of dead bodies, and in order for Agnew (and Fenton) to make a commercial success out of the sale of the photographs, the images produced had to be appealing. Although the wet collodion process on glass was a huge improvement over earlier technologies, it still required exposures of  to  seconds depending on the lighting. The glass plates used for negatives had to be coated with the collodion and used almost immediately before it dried and, in the extreme heat of the Crimean summer, this posed an especial problem.” (Houston)

There is speculation as to why Fenton stayed clear of painting a negative picture of the war. It could have been because the environmental conditions and the photographic techniques didn’t work well together or it could have been for political reasons. The argument of Fenton’s photography being somewhat “mild” could be made either way. Fenton had the support of the Royal family and the British government backing him and they most likely did influence his photography. He was forbidden to photograph dead bodies by the War Office and that seems to limit any photos to be taken on the battlefield. So what was Fenton really supposed to do? He wasn’t allowed to take pictures of dead guys and the people who sent him there didn’t want photos that would paint the war in a “negative” light. I believe Fenton was trying to do the best job he could under the conditions and restrictions that pressed down upon him. Even if he had tried to do “live” action photography of soldiers in battle the movement would have been a picture of blurs against a landscape.

I chose Roger Fenton’s photo of The artist's van because it depicts the conditions of his photography. He converted a wine merchant’s van into a mobile dark room. The heat of the Crimean summer made it difficult to take pictures. There wasn’t an extreme amount of time to take pictures wherever or whenever he wanted because of the photography process. I believe that this had a greater influence on his photos more than anything else.