I love the fact that photography of monuments were seen as cheaper options than visiting them even in 1851.
Quoting from the metmuseum website
"In 1851, the Commission des Monuments Historiques, an agency of the French government, selected five photographers to make photographic surveys of the nation’s architectural patrimony. These Missions Héliographiques, as they were called, were intended to aid the Paris-based commission in determining the nature and urgency of the preservation and restoration of work required at historic sites throughout France. The French rail network was still in its infancy and many of the commissioners had never visited the monuments in their care; photography promised a record of such sites that would be produced more quickly and accurately than the architectural drawings on which they had previously relied."
The article continues that even when the photographers returned and 4 out of 5 shot on glass rather than paper, all the negatives were files in order not to publish the images which seems like a waste. But then again if they sent 5 architects to make drawings of each of those, would they have been publicised? I guess at the stage the medium was so functional that people saw it as just a cheaper version of architectural drawing.
Roger Fenton
Somehow I took a liking to Fenton's work, I have seen it in magazines and photobooks countless times but I could not tell you who the photographer was or what the photos were of. The one thing I remember about looking at the famous image "The valley of the shadow of death." Was always that it was a road with lots of canon balls in it, and no trees what so ever. Looking through some of the other images Fenton took during this time it becomes a "where is wally" type of thing where you start looking for trees, even when you think you have spotted them they are usually ship masts.
Update: I did this research before doing the Short history of Documentary photography piece. I now know a whole lot more about Fenton.
Talking about research:
https://www.redeye.org.uk/programme/events/photographers-and-research-idea-process-and-project
Resources
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/heli/hd_heli.htm
http://www.allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html