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Valley of the Shadow of Death

Photograph
1854-5 (made), April 1855 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Fenton, Roger (photographer)
Place of origin
Crimea (made)

Photograph of a ravine littered with cannonballs.

Object details

Categories
Photographs
War
Military
Object type
Photograph
TitleValley of the Shadow of Death (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Photography using the collodion process
Photography
Collodion Processes
Brief description
Photograph by Roger Fenton Roger, entitled 'Valley of the Shadow of Death', April 1855
Physical description
Photograph of a ravine littered with cannonballs.
Dimensions
  • Height: 20.6cm
  • Width: 16.4cm
Gallery label
Label for 'Making It Up: Photographic Fictions' (3 May 2013 - 12 January 2014):

Roger Fenton (1819–69)
Valley of the Shadow of Death
1854–5

Fenton was sent to the Crimean in 1855 to document the war. Using glass plate negatives, he was not able to record split-second action. Instead, he captured the haunting aftermath of the battlefield. He made two versions of this image: one with the canon balls strewn over the road, and one without. The extent to which he ‘staged’ the photographs remains a point of speculation.

Salted paper print
Museum no. 64:856
Credit line
Townshend Bequest
Subject depicted
Cannonballs
Place depicted
Crimea
Bibliographic references
  • p. 34 edited by Simon Baker and Shoair Mavlian Conflict, time, photography London : Tate Publishing, 2014. ISBN:9781849763202
  • Taken from Photographs Register
  • Taken from Photography Department index card catalogue
  • Taken from the Guard Book
  • Taken from the Royal Collection Trust website RCIN 2500514
  • p. 166 The Origin of Photography: Great Britain. Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2019.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
64856

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Record createdSeptember 27, 2006
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O128022/valley-of-the-shadow-of-photograph-fenton-roger/
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