Valley of the Shadow of Death
Photographer: Roger Fenton
Date: April 23, 1855
Location: Sevastopol, Crimea
Roger Fenton, one of the first war photographers in history, made this image during the Crimean War on April 23, 1855, showing a road known as the 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' near Sevastopol, strewn with cannonballs after a bombardment. The photograph is famous not only as an early war image but also because it exists in two versions — one with the cannonballs in the road, one with fewer balls scattered to the side — leading historian Susan Sontag and later Errol Morris to debate and investigate whether Fenton staged the scene by moving cannonballs onto the road. Morris's 2004 analysis in the New York Times, and his later book 'Believing is Seeing,' concludes the road-strewn version was likely taken second, implying the balls were moved onto the road for dramatic effect. The image is held at the Library of Congress.
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