Roger Fenton's well known photograph, "The Valley of the Shadow
of Death"Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris may have uncovered
the world's oldest staged photograph, a wartime image taken in
1855. Radiolab spoke with Morris, who unleashed his legendary
attention to detail upon Roger Fenton's renowned photo, "The
Valley of the Shadow of Death," considered to be one of the
oldest known photographic images of warfare. The photo was taken
during the Crimean War (1853-1856) and shows a road littered
with cannonballs. The Crimean War was a massive conflict that
saw Russia battling with Britain, France, Sardinia and the
remnants of the Ottoman Empire for control over the declining
Ottoman Empire. The Crimean War itself is arguably history's
first "modern" war, featuring new communications technology (the
telegraph) and weaponry, along with the use of photography. And
Fenton's photographs taken during the war are considered to be
some of the earliest ever to document warfare. "[I]t turns out
there were actually two ph