This film is part two of my recent film ‘The Night Staircase At Furness Abbey.’
It is the story of a unique photograph taken on the night stair at Furness Abbey in 1860. My film tells the story of the photographer’s career and how this unique photograph may have come to be.
The photograph is called ‘A Vista, Furness Abbey’ and was taken by Victorian photographer Roger Fenton who was one of the most famous early photographers of his time. The photograph is part of the Royal Photographic Society Collection which is in the care of and copyright to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
He was here at Furness Abbey in 1860 as part of a trip to the Lake District. He is considered to be one of the best landscape and architectural photographers of the time and spent part of each summer travelling widely around Britain to capture landscapes and architectural studies of historical landmarks such as abbeys and stately homes. The early photographers from the 1850s onwards would place figures amongst the ruins to give a sense of scale. This photograph therefore is unusual for the time because Fenton has used Furness Abbey as the frame and setting for a photograph of people and not as the main subject of his photo. This leads me to feel that it was taken on an impulse when Fenton was surprised by such dramatic lighting on the night stair!
Roger Fenton took up the then new art of photography in 1852 and with royal patronage soon became one of the most accomplished photographers of the period. He excelled in all styles of photography and became one of the first war photographers when in 1855 he was commissioned to go to the Crimea.
For me ‘A Vista, Furness Abbey’ is a beautiful and quite unique photo.
I hope you agree.
