Yesterday evening, as I waited for the printer to finish toiling, my eyes drifted to the bookshelves to pass the time in those last few moments.
More often than not, I reach for All The Mighty World, The Photographs of Roger Fenton, 1852-1860.
I look to Fenton’s work, not really for inspiration but as a reference; an anchor. At this stage in my life, I guess you could consider him my main photographic influence along with O. Winston Link.
I enjoy looking at how Fenton worked as I feel there are many parallels to be drawn with regard to both approach and methodology.
It’s been a while since leafing through these particular pages, not least because I’ve been on the road so much of the year.
This time, I got a bit of a surprise on seeing the front cover. So, while we’re in Thames mode, I thought I’d share it with you…
For some reason (which I’ll never fathom) whilst I was working along the Thames in April and May, it completely slipped my mind that Roger Fenton had also made photographs along the Thames.
After his famous documentation of the Crimean War, Fenton spent the late 1850s largely travelling the British Isles making architectural photographs.
He too worked with Wet Plate Collodion but made glass negatives rather than the positive Ambrotypes that I make. Fenton would then produce salt prints from those negatives and, later, he moved onto albumen prints.
His photographic career was surprisingly short but he achieved so much in that time despite, to my mind, being so preoccupied with the competition.
It thrills me to know that he made photographs in the same area over 160 years ago using very similar working practices.
In fact, I even made a plate of Waterloo Bridge — the very spot where he once stood…
LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
Just 50 limited edition prints from each of the Thames plates are now available with a special opportunity to buy any three prints from the Project at a special price:
All the Mighty World: The Photographs of Roger Fenton 1852-1860 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Published by Yale University Press