The World’s First Van | MYVAN
1853: During the Crimean War, Russian and Ottoman troops waged a bitter war with massive losses on both sides. Not only the battles themselves took their toll. Disease, starvation and lack of care for the wounded cost roughly 165,000 soldiers their lives. In the midst of it all: the first van of the world.
For the first time in history, British war correspondents provided daily news updates from the front by telegraph and people read this news the same evening in the Times. At the time, public opinion was highly critical of the Crimean War. In reaction to this, the British government searched for a means of obtaining propaganda material from the front in order to bolster domestic support. They commissioned the photographer, Roger Fenton, with the task of travelling to Sevastopol along with his equipment – a destination some 3,000 km from London.
Fenton first had to overcome major technical hurdles during his preparations. The modern technology of the time utilized collodion plates and presented him with a major problem. Immediately before taking a photo he needed to coat the 40×50 centimeter photographic plates with a viscous collodion solution, before adding an additional layer of silver nitrate solution once the first coat had dried. He then transported the moist and highly sensitive photographic plate from the laboratory to the camera using a light-proof container. After taking the photo, he had to immediately return the plate to the laboratory and develop it.
However, this technique also meant that Fenton could not position the camera too far away from the laboratory. This limited radius challenged him to be inventive and he ultimately came up with an inspired idea: If he could not move too far away from the darkroom, then the darkroom simply had to be mobile so that it could accompany him wherever he went and wherever he needed it. The transportation had to be large and needed sturdy sidewalls. Which is why he purchased a coach from a wine merchant. The box body was spacious enough to contain all of his laboratory equipment.
Fenton painted the side walls of his darkroom coach with the lettering “Photographic Van”. The word “van” was a common abbreviation for “caravan” – a covered wagon pulled by horses or oxen. Historical records first document the use of the shortened form, van, in 1829 – half a century before the “automobile” was ever mentioned.
Together with his assistant, Marcus Sparling, and his high-tech equipment, Roger Fenton travelled to the war zone in 1855. During spring and summer it is extremely hot in Crimea and the heat caused significant difficulties when working with the quickly-drying chemicals. Due to the long exposure times, all of the photographs were staged and primarily portrayed officers, storage yards and munitions depots. Simple soldiers only appeared as background figures. The British Government forbade Fenton to photograph corpses or atrocities in order to foster positive public opinion.
Fenton eventually contracted cholera and returned to England with approximately 360 photos. He exhibited 312 of these at a gallery in London. The exhibition proved a success: The photographer had an eye for image composition, in part because of his early education as a painter. The two pioneers of modern war correspondence created the first photo article from a war front – approximately 50 years before pictures could even be printed in newspapers. One famous photo shows Sparling sitting on the photographic van – providing photographic proof of the “world’s first van”.
1853: During the Crimean War, Russian and Ottoman troops waged a bitter war with massive losses on both sides. Not only the battles themselves took their toll. Disease, starvation and lack of care for the wounded cost roughly 165,000 soldiers their lives. In the midst of it all: the first van of the world.
For the first time in history, British war correspondents provided daily news updates from the front by telegraph and people read this news the same evening in the Times. At the time, public opinion was highly critical of the Crimean War. In reaction to this, the British government searched for a means of obtaining propaganda material from the front in order to bolster domestic support. They commissioned the photographer, Roger Fenton, with the task of travelling to Sevastopol along with his equipment – a destination some 3,000 km from London.
Fenton first had to overcome major technical hurdles during his preparations. The modern technology of the time utilized collodion plates and presented him with a major problem. Immediately before taking a photo he needed to coat the 40×50 centimeter photographic plates with a viscous collodion solution, before adding an additional layer of silver nitrate solution once the first coat had dried. He then transported the moist and highly sensitive photographic plate from the laboratory to the camera using a light-proof container. After taking the photo, he had to immediately return the plate to the laboratory and develop it.
However, this technique also meant that Fenton could not position the camera too far away from the laboratory. This limited radius challenged him to be inventive and he ultimately came up with an inspired idea: If he could not move too far away from the darkroom, then the darkroom simply had to be mobile so that it could accompany him wherever he went and wherever he needed it. The transportation had to be large and needed sturdy sidewalls. Which is why he purchased a coach from a wine merchant. The box body was spacious enough to contain all of his laboratory equipment.
Fenton painted the side walls of his darkroom coach with the lettering “Photographic Van”. The word “van” was a common abbreviation for “caravan” – a covered wagon pulled by horses or oxen. Historical records first document the use of the shortened form, van, in 1829 – half a century before the “automobile” was ever mentioned.
Together with his assistant, Marcus Sparling, and his high-tech equipment, Roger Fenton travelled to the war zone in 1855. During spring and summer it is extremely hot in Crimea and the heat caused significant difficulties when working with the quickly-drying chemicals. Due to the long exposure times, all of the photographs were staged and primarily portrayed officers, storage yards and munitions depots. Simple soldiers only appeared as background figures. The British Government forbade Fenton to photograph corpses or atrocities in order to foster positive public opinion.
Fenton eventually contracted cholera and returned to England with approximately 360 photos. He exhibited 312 of these at a gallery in London. The exhibition proved a success: The photographer had an eye for image composition, in part because of his early education as a painter. The two pioneers of modern war correspondence created the first photo article from a war front – approximately 50 years before pictures could even be printed in newspapers. One famous photo shows Sparling sitting on the photographic van – providing photographic proof of the “world’s first van”.
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