Roger Fenton, Photographer of The Crimean War, by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim

Roger Fenton, Photographer of The Crimean War. His photographs and letters from The Crimea.
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim

From 1854 to 1855, under the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Fenton photographed the Crimea, where Great Britain was fighting an unpopular war against the Russians. Despite the countless challenges, Fenton managed to produce the first photographic documentation of war. Almost a century later, Helmut Gernsheim managed to track down one of Fenton’s descendants and purchased his complete set of 350 Crimean War photographs some of which are included in this book. Fenton said that the images from his photographic campaign were “intended to illustrate faithfully the scenery of the camps; to display prominent incidents of military life, as well as to perpetuate the portraits of those distinguished officers, English and French, who have taken part in the ever memorable Siege of Sebastopol.” In 1855 he contracted cholera and returned to England where he presented his photographs to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Hardback in cellophane protective cover. No dust jacket. Red book cloth cover in good condition.

106 pages
64 pages of black and white photographs
195 mm x 250 mm (7.5 in x 10 in)
1954, Secker and Warburg, London