Interior of the Taku Fort, 1860

Photograph by Felice Beato (1825-1907), 2nd China War (1856-1860), 1860.

Anxious to capture images of the immediate aftermath of the fighting, Felice Beato followed the assaulting troops into the forts, and implored the soldiers not to disturb the 'beautiful arrangement' of corpses before he had had the chance to photograph them. These horrific images mark a grim milestone in the development of war photography.

From an album of 39 photographs.