Officers on the Staff of Lieutenant General Sir Richard England 1855

Roger Fenton made this photograph, Officers on the Staff of Lieutenant General Sir Richard England, using the collodion process. This was the cutting-edge tech of its day. The artist would have coated a glass plate with a sticky, light-sensitive emulsion, exposed it in the camera while still wet, and then developed it immediately. The resulting print has a distinctive look. The sepia tones, soft focus, and limited tonal range all speak to the constraints of the method. But the process also allowed for a relatively high degree of detail. You can see the texture of the stone building and the faces of the men. Photography in this period involved a lot of labor. Hauling equipment, preparing chemicals, and processing plates in the field. It was hardly as simple as snapping a picture on your phone. This image reminds us that every photograph is the result of a complex interplay between technology, skill, and circumstance. It challenges our assumptions about photography as a purely objective medium. It also brings into focus the amount of work that goes into creating an image.