Lichfield Cathedral from the North-West, 1858

Architecture continued to be one of Fenton's favored subjects throughout his short but highly acclaimed artistic career. He photographed the ruined abbeys of Tintern and Rievaulx and the grand cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln. As critics of the time noted, he repeatedly placed people as well as natural and man-made objects in his compositions to demonstrate how these monuments to British history continued to be vital entities in the present. He achieved this in Lichfield Cathedral from the North-west, positioning his camera across the street and to the side in order to give equal weight and importance to the hitching post, the well, the 19th-century lamppost, and the massive cathedral behind them.