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Roger Fenton

Born: Bury, Lancashire, March 1819
Died: London, 8 August 1869
Nationality: English
Background: 

family of bankers and cotton merchants

Studies: 

University College, London; with Charles Lucy (1838); with Paul Delaroche (1841-43, Paris)

Career: 

1847 – returns to London; works as lawyer

1849 – exhibits at the Royal Academy (RA)

1851 – exhibits at the RA; joins Calotype Society; visits the Société Héliographique (Paris)

1853 –founder of Photographic Society (London); honorary secretary until 1856; begins working exclusively as a photographer; official photographer to the British Museum

1854 – first Photographic Society exhibition; photographs Royal family at Windsor; Thomas Agnew commissions Fenton to photograph the Crimean War

1855 – Crimean War photographs exhibited at Old Water-Colour Society gallery (London); images published by Agnew & Sons

1862 – sells his equipment and negatives; returns to legal career

Travels  

Paris (1841-43; 1851); Kiev (1852); Crimea (1854)

Commissions from: 

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; Thomas Agnew

Important Artworks: 

Glastonbury Abbey, 1867 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

Web Resources

Metmuseum: Roger Fenton