Collections Online

Roger Fenton was one of the founders of the Photographic Society. Even though he was a brilliant and successful photographer, he was a photographer for just twelve years. In 1852 he made what are believed to be the first photographs of Russia and the Kremlin. He was however, most famous for his photographs of the Crimea in 1855 which were the first large-scale photographic documentation of war. In 1852, Fenton (who had only taken up photography a few months earlier) travelled to Russia with the engineer Charles Vignoles who was constructing a bridge across the Dnieper River near Kiev for Czar Nicholas I. Fenton made views of Moscow and St. Petersburg, capturing the distinct architectural character of each city. These are believed to be the first photographs of Moscow and the Kremlin.