One of the reasons for the Crimean War in the 1850s was the dispute over the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
In the end, tensions turned into a war between the Russian Empire, on the one hand, and a coalition of the British, French, Ottoman and Sardinian empires, on the other, centered on the most important warm-water ports on the Crimean Peninsula and in the Balkans.
The fighting in Crimea, which included the famous Light Brigade Attack, eventually led to a prolonged deadlock as the alliance of Britain, France and Turkey besieged the Russian-held port of Sevastopol.
Supply interruptions, strategic mistakes and harsh winter conditions were dangerous for the Allies who surrounded the city.
To form the necessary mood of the public, which began to express doubts about the correctness of the war, the British government hired photographer Roger Fenton to go to Crimea and take the first war photographs in history. He arrived near Sevastopol in March 1855 and remained there for 3.5 months.
The photographer's employers wanted him to convey a sense of fortitude and success in the military campaign. Therefore, Fenton did not take any pictures of soldiers who died from the winter cold or cholera, or those who were mutilated by artillery fire.
With the help of large and heavy cameras that required long exposure, Fenton photographed soldiers, workers and generals, and also filmed orderly rows of tents and carts going from the port of Balaklava to the front in the background.
Captain Thomas Longworth of the British Royal Artillery.
Promotional video:
A dock for livestock in Balaklava harbor.
Marine supplyman riding a camel in the port of Balaklava.
Balaclava.
View of Balaklava and the harbor from the guards' camp on the hill.
Allied tent camp on the plateau in front of Sevastopol.
Photographer Roger Fenton, dressed as a Zouave Infantryman, captured by Marcus Sparling.
British Lieutenant General Sir George de Lacy Evans.
The most famous and controversial photograph of Fenton was the one taken on April 23, 1855, which shows the road to Sevastopol, strewn with cannonballs. Because of the frequency with which it was fired upon by Russian troops, the soldiers nicknamed it "Valley of the Shadow of Death." The famous image shows cannonballs accumulated in ditches and on the road itself.
But Fenton also took another, lesser-known picture of the same scene, without any cannonballs at the top of the road.
Historians have offered many competing theories about which of the photographs was taken first, or why and by whom the cannonballs were transferred. An exhaustive investigation by director Errol Morris, based on changing the appearance of several small patches of rock between two shots, led to the conclusion that the image of the cannonballs on the side of the road was taken first, and then they were transferred to the road.
This serves as yet another reminder of the dangers of staged photography for using photographs as objective evidence, even 133 years before Photoshop was invented.
Valley of the shadow of death - road to Sevastopol. The cannonballs were moved onto the road from the side of the road, most likely by a photographer.
The mobile darkroom of Roger Fenton and his assistant Marcus Sparling. Sparling requested that this photograph be taken as the last shot before they headed out into the danger zone.
Officers of the 17th Regiment.
Prince Napoleon Bonaparte, cousin of Emperor Napoleon III, served as a general in the Crimean War.
Major General Sir George Buller.
Officers from the 71st Mountain Regiment pose with a dog in a British camp.
Railway officials in Balaklava.
Soldiers of the 4th Guards Dragoon Regiment and a woman are resting near the house.
Lieutenant John Sherwood Gaynor of the 47th Regiment.
Captain Charles Augustus Drake Halford of the 5th Dragoon Guards.
View of Balaklava from the hill.
Two zouaves - light infantryman of the French army - share a flask.
Two sergeants of the 4th Dragoon Regiment share a drink.
French Marshal Pelissier.
Two Croats.
Chief of the military police of the division of General Bosquet.
Hungarian general Gyorgy Kmet, who served in the Ottoman army under the name of Ismail Pasha, hands over the phone to a servant.
British Lieutenant General Sir Colin Campbell.
William Simpson, martial artist.
Lieutenant Walter Aston Fox Strandweiss.
British commander Henry Berkeley Fitzharding Max.