Unseen
Waterloo
Reimagined Photographs from the Battlefield of Waterloo
Maréchal des Logis-Chef, 9e Régiment de Cuirassiers, France
Trompette, 1er Régiment de Chevau-Légers Lanciers de la Garde Impériale, France
Surgeon, 33rd Regiment of Foot (1st Yorkshire West Riding), Britain
Rittmeister, 1. Garde -Ulanen Escadron, Preußen
Rifleman, 95th (Rifle) Regiment of Foot, Britain
Korporaal, 7e Bataljon Infanterie Van Linie, Nederland
Jager, 27e Bataljon Jager, Nederland
Husar, Herzoglich Braunschweigisches Korps, Braunschweig
Douanier, Douanes Impériales, France
Drummer, 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot, Britain
Capitaine, 7e Régiment de Hussards, France
Chasseur, Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, France
Capitaine, 8e Régiment d’Infanterie de Ligne, France
Brigadier, 9e Régiment de Hussards, France
Aide-de-Camp, Grand État-Major Général, France
Private, 42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foot, (The Black Watch), Britain
Corporal, 3rd East Kent Regiment of Foot (The Buffs), Britain
Sergeant, 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot, Britain
Private, 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot, Britain
Officer, 7e Régiment de Hussards, France
Chasseur, Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, France
Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited by Sam Faulkner
Photo Portrait Series
Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited, is a series of imaginary portraits exploring how we remember the fallen from a time before photography.
From 2009 for 5 years, I travelled to the annual Waterloo re-enactment in Belgium to photograph the ‘soldiers’ who taking part. The photographs are made in his ‘pop-up’- studio on the fields where the battle was fought.
The Battle of Waterloo is one of the greatest in history. For nine hours 200,00 men fought one of the most intense and bitter battles the world has seen. By sunset the world had changed. 54,000 men lay dead, dying or injured and Napoleon was vanquished.
Waterloo brought to an end nearly a quarter of a century of conflict and ushered in one hundred years of relative peace in Europe.
“Waterloo is often remembered as battle between two great men, Wellington and Napoleon. I wanted to reclaim the battle for the men who fought and died that day. It was the last conflict before the invention of photography. This project is my attempt to re-imagine the non-existent portraits from 1815.” said Sam Faulkner.
Unseen Waterloo Book-1815 Edition
Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited book by Sam Faulkner accompanies the photography exhibition of the same name at Somerset House to coincide with the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo.
From 2009, multi-award-winning photographer Sam Faulkner travelled to the annual re-enactment in Belgium to photograph the 'soldiers', dressed in the historically accurate uniforms created with painstaking attention to detail for the event.
From his pop-up studio situated on the battlefield, he has made dramatic and painterly portraits which evoke the forgotten faces of Waterloo and reimagine moments of glory, of hope and defeat.
“Waterloo is often cast as a battle between Great Men and certainly, we've all seen the grand paintings of Napoleon and Wellington from the conflict. However we don't have personal images of the men who actually fought and died that day”, said Sam Faulkner.
Published on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo the book accompanied the 12-week exhibition at Somerset House designed and curated by Patrick Kinmonth.
The beautiful cover design is a foil-blocked map of the Waterloo battlefield on blue cloth.