Photo of the Day

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Sunday 25 October 2026

The Charge of the Light Brigade took place on 25 October 1854.

Sepia photo of a bare, rocky valley road strewn with cannonballs, low hills rising on either side under a blank sky — Photograph · 1855

Roger Fenton's photograph from the Crimean War, one of the most famous early war photos. Its title echoes Psalm 23 and Tennyson's poem about the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Fun facts

It was taken months after the charge, and not in the valley where the Light Brigade rode. Soldiers gave this shell-battered ravine the name. source ↗
Fenton made two exposures from the same spot: one with cannonballs on the road, one with the road clear. source ↗
In 2007 the filmmaker Errol Morris compared the two and, from small rocks on the slope that had tumbled downhill between exposures, concluded the empty road came first, meaning someone moved the cannonballs onto it. source ↗
Fenton traveled with a horse-drawn darkroom, since his glass plates had to be developed within minutes. source ↗

Image: Roger Fenton · Library of Congress
Licence: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons Library of Congress