Zouave, 2nd Division 1855

Editor: So, this is Roger Fenton's "Zouave, 2nd Division," taken in 1855. It's a gelatin-silver print of a soldier. I’m struck by how posed and theatrical it feels. He’s holding a rifle, but it doesn’t scream "battle-ready" to me. It almost feels like a costume drama. What do you make of it? Curator: It does have a theatrical air, doesn’t it? But I find it strangely poignant too. It's one of Fenton’s Crimean War series, made in a photographic studio, though! Consider this – it’s impossible to ignore photography's power and limitations in conveying 'truth'. Do you notice the still life on the left? Wine, a tankard. Editor: It makes him feel very approachable, much like still-life paintings from Dutch Golden Age paintings where, everyday scenes of leisure and quiet contemplation, with meticulously arranged elements, become very important Curator: Exactly! He is staged almost with that goal. The image aims not for 'objective' reportage, but to ennoble. What sort of truths were they interested in conveying, back then, do you imagine? Not battlefield carnage, certainly. Something more… dignified, wouldn't you agree? Editor: I suppose it shows a more humane side. Less of war’s brutality, more about who was fighting in those wars? Curator: Indeed, he appears ready, but we are looking through an idyllic gaze that shows him to be an ordinary person caught up in an event larger than themself. Editor: That's a much richer way of looking at it. Seeing past the "war photo" label and seeing the human portrait instead. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. Photography then and now is an instrument, as well as a work of art. What instrument are we meant to play, viewing it now?