Photography had been around more than 20 years before the Civil War began. When pictures were taken, they showed colonels, bodies that were on the battlefield, even soldiers that were around the camp tent. A few photographers that will be discussed are Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, George Barnard and Timothy O’Sullivan. I will talk about how their photography affected the social and political arena as well as how photography in contemporary society provides the public with an up-close testimony to recent wars and global strife.
Mathew Brady stated, “My greatest aim has been to advance the art of photography and to make it what I think I have, a great and truthful medium of history.” (Keya Morgan, 2004). Mathew Brady was a 19th century
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In the social arena, Mathew Brady photographed people bringing them into his photography studio and they were connected, for example, that is where Mathew Brady met his wife Juliette Handy.
Alexander Gardner worked for Mathew Brady as his assistant photographer. Although it was Brady’s name on most of the photographs, it was Gardner that took the photographs. When the Civil War started, portrait photography’s demand increased. Soldiers wanted to leave photographs and images behind with their loved ones as they posed before going to war. (Group of officers at Headquarters Army of Potomac, ppmsca 34178 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.34178)
Alexander Gardner was more so known for his photographs of scenery instead of the troops. While he worked with Mathew Brady that was his focus, but once he departed from Mathew, Alexander began taking photographs of the scenes.
Other photographers took pictures of the troops and men during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia, but it was Alexander Gardner that took them of the scenery; which is how he affected the political arena. He showed a difference in campaigning. His photography affected the social arena by using the camera differently and started something new, instead of taking one photo at a time, he took four. Before Gardner died he said, “It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the
Eadward Muybridge and Cornelius Jabez Hughes, two photographers of the 19th century, introduced revolutionary ideas impacting the way photographs could be taken, categorized, and used. Muybridge, better known as the ‘father of the motion picture,’ studied landscape photos and invented a device that drastically improved their quality. In addition, he helped to pioneer work in the studies of motion and motion-picture projection. Hughes developed new technology related to photography and helped to guide many other amateur photographers into producing better forms of photography. The two had lasting impacts on the growth and importance of photography in the art, science, and everyday realms.
In Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War, the haunting image “Harvest of Death” catches one’s eye with the seemingly endless field of corpses. The jarring facial expression on the figure in the foreground draws one into the narrative of the piece. However, our initial understanding of the image’s narrative is limited to what we can see and what we know of the circumstances surrounding it. While we know it was taken during the American Civil War, by simply looking at the photograph, we cannot know who is depicted. In black and white, it is difficult to even tell what side of the conflict these fallen soldiers fought for. We can interpret the image for our own readings, but we cannot tell what the artist intended us to see or what message he wanted to impart with it. These unknowns, however, are addressed in the related text associated with the image. These short passages can tell us a great deal about the photographer’s intentions and influence the way we read the image. Through the excerpt, we not only learn the intended meaning of the photography, but we also learn about Gardner’s political intentions and the key points he wanted his viewers to note within the image. Published as a pair, Gardner used his text to contextualize his images and inform the way we perceive them. This is clearly illustrated in “A Harvest of Death” and its accompanying passage.
During the pre-Civil War era, the technology of photography was rare or still in development. All renderings of war were either in paintings or in literature. Since artists were the only people capable of creating
The photos which require long exposure time to capture a photo as it is still relatively invented, the photos generally captured the soldiers going into a battle and then laying dead from the result of the aftermath. Photography was a relatively a new technology but it was not a welcomed one as the photography pioneers displayed such vividly real images to civilians and noncombatants. Matthew Bradley was one of those pioneers which was quoted "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the face of its historic men and mothers."
When examining American photography you must discuss the Farmer Security Administration-Office of War Information, also referred to as the FSA/OWI. This administration was the single and most significant documentary photography project in the history of United States. Photographs taken by members of the FSA/OWI all display and represent American society in different ways to help give a better understanding of major historic events occurring in the United States at this time. The members of the FSA use many formal elements to help illustrate society and its cultural that will enhance our understanding of the FSA/OWI project and United States. In addition, these formal elements such as lighting, framing, subject matter, and detail are used
A painting named The Taking Of The Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, 1917, created by Richard Jack, in 1919 was published at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. This painting exists as it promotes the significant heroic actions with the complete accuracy of details, and the painting is entirely in sympathy with what the audience, might have witnessed if they had been at the event. The target audience could be anyone, who has the love for art or history and becomes more open to military paintings and has an interest in finding out what had happened in the past. Jack may have had access to a wide variety of sources of information such as the supply of photographs and details of the fight at the time and with details of the fight being plentiful, the
In December of 1936, Adams is hospitalized for a chest infection and mononucleosis. Unfortunately, in June of 1937, a fire occurred in Adams’ darkroom at Yosemite. This fire destroyed one third of his earlier negatives of photos. A few of his friends helped him try to sort through the photos that did not get burned. Even though Adams did encounter multiple difficulties throughout his life, he managed to bounce back. Adams’ career did not go without some difficulties. Eventhough he did have to deal with such horrible things throughout his life, he managed to not only contribute various photos and ideals to society, but was also a significant person to many
The second photograph is obviously a war photograph. I believe the photographer of this image is Alexander Gardner. The title of the photograph is “Gettysburg Sniper”, “Gettysburg Sharpshooter” or “A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep”. This photo looks as if it is a civil war photograph which means it must’ve been taken in 1863; the year of the Battle of Gettysburg. Many other photographers, photographed during this time because it is the time of the American civil war. A few of these include Andrew J. Russell (Promontory Point), Matthew Brady, and Alexander Gardner’s very own assistant Timothy O’ Sullivan. As a result of Civil War technology, the American Civil War the first industrial war. From hot air balloons to submarines, new advances in technology
Before the invention of the camera, news traveled through word of mouth, writing, telegrams, and other forms of communication. Often times important moments were depicted through paintings, and drawings. Unfortunately, because of opinion and misinterpretation, many of those moments, had been depicted incorrectly. Take, for example the Boston Massacre which took place in the late 1700’s before the invention of the camera. In order to inform people of what is now known as the shot heard around the world, Paul Revere, a famous American revolutionist made an engraving of the scene.
This essay will investigate the work of contemporary photographer Tim Walker, and historical photographer Ansel Adams. This essay will examine the many changes of how photography has evolved through the decades from the photographer’s style, use of equipment, techniques and what photography is used for. These changes will be seen by looking at the contemporary photographer and comparing them to the historical photographer.
Join iconic war and landscape photographer Don McCullin in conversation with Libby Purves about his travels and career behind the lens: from documenting victims of foreign conflicts to capturing British landscapes.
Adams method to photography is what made his pictures so original. It is seen time and time again that the simplicity of his pictures is what makes them so great: a delicate flower on a piece of wood, a misshaped tree, the beautiful Teton Mountains. Ansel Adams truly believed and
photography career expand. In 1839 the first paper photograph is of Lacock Abby, today it can
During this time period, not only was the arguably most famous battle of the American Civil War in action, this was also near the year of President Lincoln’s assassination, which Gardner also covered with his photography, The Lincoln Conspiracy Album. Many other photographers were also inspired by such tragedy in a time period such as John Reekie, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, and George N. Barnard. Alexander Gardner, a self- taught master of the wet- plate process, constructed this photograph for artistic effect. To set the scene he first moved the body of the Confederate soldier approximately forty yards, into the “Devil’s Den” and added a musket, instead of a rifle. Next, he turned the corpse's face towards the camera, thus forcing every viewer to gaze directly into the eyes of a tragic, violent, and premature
William Eugene Smith was an American photographer who produced photographic projects that changed how photographs were portrayed. Rather than a photo being a photo, he told stories through his photographs, through a practice called photojournalism. His photographic projects depicted people in their everyday lives, but in different situations. The photographs he took did not hide anything that he saw from the audience no matter how graphic the scenery may appear to be. His photography methods differed from traditional methods, in that traditional photographs/photographic projects were a distortion of reality, so that it is more pleasing to the audience. Smith on the other showed what was actually going on in the world or wherever he was