Cemetery, Cathcart's Hill 1855

This sepia photograph, Cemetery, Cathcart’s Hill, was taken by Roger Fenton. Captured at eye-level, the light, flat and open landscape, which fades almost to white in the far distance, gives a sense of the bleakness and solitude of Cathcart's Hill cemetery. The composition uses strong horizontals and verticals to create a structured, ordered image from a somber place. The horizontal lines of the land, and the vertical lines of the crosses and tombstones. These stark lines are softened by the uneven texture of the rocky ground. This tension between rigidity and irregularity gives rise to a symbolic play between order and the chaos of loss. There is a clear structure to how the images uses a formal visual language to make meaning. The careful composition and tone imbues an image of death with a quiet contemplation. It leaves us to reflect not only on the literal scene but also on how Fenton's aesthetic choices shape our understanding and experience.