[Self-Portrait]

Roger Fenton

February 1852 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

In an improvised studio with overhead drapery to control the light, the thirty-two-year-old Fenton struck a jaunty pose for this self-portrait. Perhaps timing the exposure, he set his open pocket watch on the book in his hands. This is among Fenton's earliest photographs. In the decade that followed, he became the most celebrated and influential photographer in England, excelling in every genre of photography: majestic architectural views of England's stately homes and ruined abbeys, Romantic depictions of the countryside, moving reportage of the Crimean War, intimate portraits of Queen Victoria and her family, enchanting Orientalist tableaux, and astonishingly lush still lifes.

Artist

Roger Fenton

Date

February 1852

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 2005