The Vulture, Caught in the Ice (Le Vautour, prise dans les Glaces)

Jean-Baptiste-Henri Durand-Brager and Pierre Lassimonne were among the many photographers ordered to photograph the Crimean War (1853-1856), the first war during which war photographs were numerous and widely circulated. Despite photography’s noticeable presence, photographers were still limited in what they could capture. Sketch artists were better equipped to render images of war, while photographers recorded more static, predictable scenes, such as fortifications, landscapes, troops, military leaders, and scenes before and after battle. This photograph is one in a series that Durand-Brager and Lassimonne took of the French fleet at Kamiesch. In addition to showing an open-air scene of a French naval vessel frozen in the ice, it illustrates some of the early challenges of photographing in the field. Photographers had to carry heavy, temperamental equipment and were limited by the materials and technology of the medium. For example, the wet-plate collodion process used here was incapable of registering topographic detail, so the ship almost appears to float, untethered to any of its surroundings.