Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited, Somerset House

To mark the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Somerset house revisits the violent conflict between Britain and France through a series of powerful portraits from photographer Sam Faulkner.
Sam Faulkner & Waterloo
Waterloo was arguably the last great battle fought in the pre-photography era. While commanders Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington are often seen facing off in grand history paintings, there are no images of the 200,000 soldiers who bled on the battlefield that day, nearly a quarter of whom lay dying afterwards. Through this new show, war photographer Faulkner, who has experienced conflict first hand as an artist working in Colombia and Afghanistan, aims to reimagine the portraits that could have been made in 1815. 
Somerset House exhibition London
Faulkner’s subjects are the soldiers who take part in Belgium’s annual Waterloo re-enactment, dressed in exceptionally detailed, historically accurate uniforms. The 80 life-size images in Unseen Waterloo are set against the backdrop of the Hainsworth fabric – the scarlet woollen cloth which the redcoat soldiers of the British army wore. His striking portraits, captured on the staged battlefield within a pop-up studio, reconfigure those emotionally polarised moments in war of hope and defeat. 
Don’t miss this rare and powerful insight into one of history’s most iconic battles.