Roger Fenton's photographic van

I've only recently come across this picture of the horse-drawn van that Roger Fenton worked from to photograph the Crimean War in 1855. It was converted from a wine-merchant's wagon, and served as both darkroom, equipment store and sleeping quarters for Fenton (his assistant slept underneath the van between the wheels).

Fenton needed a mobile darkroom because he was using the new Wet Collodion process, which required him to coat glass plates with liquid photographic emulsion just before taking each picture. The plates then had to be developed before the emulsion dried.

So we had it quite easy really.