L'Entente Cordiale (photograph)

[1][2] The Crimean War started in October 1853 between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, which was joined the following year by France and the United Kingdom.

Fenton arrived in Balaklava, Crimea, and moved to Sevastopol, in March 1855, to document the ongoing siege.

The English photographer attempted to portray the conflict in a positive way, and took pictures of members of the allied armies, both soldiers and officers, of local landscapes and also of the scenes of the battlefields, often deserted.

[5][6] The artificiality of the scene doesn't detract from the real comradeship often experienced by soldiers of both armies during the war.

The National Army Museum website states that "In fact, the friendly atmosphere it portrays seems to have matched reality.