The Beacon on the Parapet (second view)

The second exposure of the beacon, made from a slightly different position, and worth publishing alongside the first for the same reason any pair of wet-plate views is worth publishing: what one angle flattens, the other resolves.

From here the relationship between the beacon and the works below it reads more clearly. The timber frame stands on the highest surviving point of the parapet; beneath it the gabion revetment steps down in tiers, and the ramp and stair by which men reached the top are visible at the left.

These two plates were made minutes apart. Wet collodion did not allow a photographer to wander — the plate had to be coated, exposed and developed before it dried — so two views of one subject mean two setups within a short walk of the darkroom, in a short span of time.

Comparing them is also the fairest test of a colorization. The same materials, the same light, two framings: any rendering that gives the sand, brick and timber different colors between these two plates has invented something.