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PSS
Exhibitors
Roger
Fenton
[London]
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Background
Roger Fenton was a solicitor and son of a Lancashire mill-owner
and banker. He was born near Rochdale, Lancashire in 1819,
and died in London in 1869. He studied as a painter from
about 1839, and became one of the most respected photographers of
the 1850s.
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Fenton takes up
Photography
Fenton took up
photography in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition in London.
He photographed Queen Victoria and her family, and took many
photographs for the British Museum over several years.
He took many stereo
photographs.
Fenton visited Russia in 1852 with his camera, and travelled to the
Scottish Highlands the following year, stopping briefly in
Edinburgh. A series of prints from the Scottish expedition
were made, but these were never published.
However, he is probably best known for his 360 photographs of the
Crimean War, taken in 1855. These photographs were included
in one of the early photographic exhibitions that went on tour
throughout Britain in 1855-56.
[Roger
Fenton of Crimble Hall
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Fenton and
Photographic Societies
Roger Fenton was a founding
member of the Calotype Club in London in the 1840s. Later,
following the inclusion of photographs in the Great Exhibition of
1851, Fenton and another 9 gentlemen formed a committee in 1852
with a view to establishing a Photographic Society.
He was the
founder of The Photographic Society in London and its first
Secretary (1853-56). The society later became The
Royal Photographic Society, which still thrives today.
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Photographs in Exhibitions
Fenton was a regular contributor to many of the photographic exhibitions
in Britain in the 1850s. Almost all of his exhibits were
listed in the catalogues as
collodion.
A few were listed as
wax paper,
albumen
and
photogalvanography.
In the exhibitions where he offered his photographs for sale, the
price was usually between 3/- (three shillings) and 10/6 (ten
shillings and sixpence - or half a guinea) each.
However, the prices charged for his Crimean photographs in the
touring exhibition of 1855-56 ranged from £1/1/0 (a guinea) for a
single print to:
- £21 for 60: photos entitled
Incidents of Camp Life
or
- £21 for 50: photos entitled
Scenery: Views of the Camps,
&c.
- £60: The Complete
Work with the descriptive Etchings as published.
[Photographs Exhibited in Britain 1839-1865]
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Fenton's Photographs exhibited in
Edinburgh
Roger Fenton exhibited his work in several of The Photographic
Society of Scotland's Exhibitions, held in Edinburgh.
His entries were praised in the Press.
In the
1st PSS Exhibition,
held in December 1856 his exhibits were 37
collodion and 1 albumen. These included two collodion views
of Edinburgh:
- Edinburgh from
Craigleith Quarry
- Edinburgh from the
South
In the
3rd PSS Exhibition,
held in December 1858, his exhibits were 13 collodions, again
including one entitled:
- Edinburgh from
Craigleith Quarry
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Fenton gives up
Photography
In 1862, just as
photographs was becoming more affordable, with the
carte-de-visite craze taking off, and
many new photographers opening up for business, Fenton announced
his decision to give up photography.
He made this announcement, and
advertised an auction sale of his photographic equipment, and
almost all of his photographs, in the
Photographic Journal of 15 October 1862.
[Roger
Fenton of Crimble Hall] |
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Fenton's
Letters Today
The Royal Photographic Society now has the world's largest
collection of Fenton's photographs - over 700. it also
purchased, at auction in 1997, a book of 50 letters written by
Roger Fenton and transcribed by his daughter, Annie Grace.
[The Photographic Journal: September 1997,
p.281] |
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Fenton's
Photographs Today
An 1856 salted paper print by Fenton, titled South Porch,
Roslin Chapel, was sold at Christie's Auction on 30 April 1997 for
£52,000 to an American buyer. This was a British auction
record.
[The Photographic Journal: September 1997,
p.281] |
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