Architecture continued to be one of Fenton's favored subjects throughout his short but highly acclaimed artistic career. He photographed the ruined abbeys of _Tintern_ and Rievaulx and the grand cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln. As critics of the time noted, he repeatedly placed people as well as natural and man-made objects in his compositions to demonstrate how these monuments to British history continued to be vital entities in the present. He achieved this in _Lichfield Cathedral from the North-west_, positioning his camera across the street and to the side in order to give equal weight and importance to the hitching post, the well, the 19th-century lamppost, and the massive cathedral behind them.