After reading the lectures and supplemental readings, discuss how manipulating a scene was an acceptable practice during the Crimean War and Civil War in a two paragraph essay. It’s important to discuss the goal and or desired effect. Be sure to discuss one manipulated photo from each war to demonstrate your understanding.

Each paragraph should consist of 5 to 6 sentences. Examples from lecture and supplemental readings should be made to demonstrate understanding. Answers that appear to meet the length requirement but do not say something of substance as in the example of short sentences meant to meet the quota will lose points.

Use Parenthetical References

First and foremost, please do not perform outside research. You have everything you need in the lectures. As this is a Zero Text Cost class, you should not have to seek information outside of the contents of this course.

All essays must contain parenthetical references at the end of each sentence explaining where the information was found (Baudelaire, 99). It is not necessary to create endnotes or a works cited section.

Examples of what to do:

These examples come from an upcoming essay written by Susan Sontag. This is how a direct quote should be handled from an external reading or from the module lecture:

According to Sontag, “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge-and, therefore, like power” (Sontag 1).

Sontag hints at the notion that one no longer needs to travel to visit exotic places. All one need do is buy a picture of the place instead (DeAngelis Module 7).

When you paraphrase or take the info and write it in your own words, you still need to cite. This is how paraphrasing should be handled:

Many believe that when one takes a picture, they are collecting pieces of the world (Sontag 1).

5. Lecture

Why Did the Civil War Begin?

Existing free states wanted new territories to become “free states.” Existing slave states wanted new territories to become “slave states.” The power of government was called into question over this dilemma.

Abraham Lincoln pledged to keep slavery out of the new territories that had not yet become states. Some of the slave states in the deep South seceded. The slave states that withdrew banded together and formed a new nation. This new nation, the Confederate States of America, would not be recognized by the incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people. They thought it would discredit democracy and perhaps fragment the UNITED States into smaller squabbling states.

What Event Triggered the War?

In Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Confederates claimed the US fortress as their own by firing upon the fortress and forcing it to surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this insurrection against the government. The goal of the “North” also known as the “Union” was to destroy the “Old South” and the institution of slavery. This event was the beginning of the Civil War.

Lost letters post card pix

Did you know?

Did you know there is a “Dead Letter Office” department at the United States Post Office? That’s where all of the Civil War soldier portrait photos went when they could not be delivered to the mail recipient.

Photo Collage of Soldier Photographs at United States Post Office
Dead Letter Office, 1861, Unknown Photographers

At the end of the Civil War, roughly 4.5 million undelivered letters were eventually sent to the Dead Letter Office. Some soldier families had to relocate in war time and mail forward was not an option.

Seeing is Equal to Knowing

Significance of The Civil War

The Civil War was significant for many, many important reasons. One of these reasons is that it was a war fought on our own soil. The Civil War pitted neighbor against neighbor, family against family, and countryman against countryman.

Photo of photojournalist

Photojournalism was born out of the desire for people who wanted pictures of their soldier kin as well as visual depictions of battles fought during the Civil War. People wanted to know how loved ones endured and/or lost their lives. Capturing such events was the future of photography, and photojournalism was born out of the desire to know, and the desire to view pictorial evidence of current events, beginning with the Civil War.

Container of Truth and Carrier of Cultural Values

The more people saw, the more knowledge they possessed about the world. Photography was in a very unique position to fulfill this desire. The premise of the photograph as a container of truth and carrier of cultural values was at last established and accepted.

Communication and transportation advances around the time of the Civil War brought people closer together and curiosity grew. People believed that the photograph was the container of truth and carrier of cultural values.

The First Current Event Photograph is the First Catastrophe Photograph

A cost-effective way to get news photographs to large audiences was not available. If a photographer wanted to get the shot, they would need to be on the site of the event or catastrophe at the time it was occurring. A current event or catastrophe photo would convey what a person would have seen if they were there themselves watching the action as it unfolded. Truth and accuracy were best served by showing the wholeness of the scene. Photographers believed that broad views were best because they revealed the most visual information.

Lithograph of a view of the conflagration of the city of Hamburg.
From the front page of the Illustrated London News, May 14, 1842

Perhaps ideas about “firsts” began with the incinerated ruins of Hamburg, Germany, after the great fire of 1842. It is technically the first current event photo ever taken.

Photographers needed to be at the scene BUT could not capture the action of the fire while it was raging unless the wind was blowing away from the burning structures. So they had to focus on artifacts instead. At the time, photographs of Hamburg in ruins were regarded as dynamic, factual, and timely. The above depiction of the city of Hamburg burning is an illustration made from a photo published in the London News, 1842. During this time, there was no way to publish actual photographs in newspapers. An artist need to make a drawing of the photograph in order to publish it.

George N. Barnard, Fire at the Ames Mill, Oswego, NY, 1853

More than a decade later, George Barnard arrived to the scene while the fire was raging. He took this photo of the burning Ames Mill in Oswego, NY, in 1853. Again, Barnard was able to capture one of the first catastrophes while it was actually taking place.

Unknown Photographer, General Wool on Horseback
(at Center), 1847, Yale University.

Mexican War

Some of the first “war” pictures were circulated of a general on horseback in Saltillo, Mexico, during the Mexican War, 1846-48. While the photograph was not exactly a war scene per se, it was still significant for its time. General Wool joined the US army to fight in the War of 1812. He also chose to serve in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.

Roger Fenton, A Quiet Day at the Mortar Battery, 1855. Salted paper print.

Roger Fenton and The Crimean War

The Crimean War began in 1853 and was the second war photographed. Europeans were interested in seeing pictures. Manchester Publishing was interested in selling those photographs to aristocrats and sent Roger Fenton to photograph it. He was experienced in documentary work but never took pictures of death, human suffering, and bloody battles.

Do Not Confuse the Crimean War with the Civil War: A Few Facts on the Crimean War

Crimea is in the Ukraine. The Crimean War, took place between October 1853–February 1856 and was a war fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish, with support from January 1855 by the army of Sardinia-Piedmont. The war arose from the conflict of great powers in the Middle East and was more directly caused by Russian demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman sultan. Another major factor was the dispute between Russia and France over the privileges of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in the holy places in Palestine. Credit: Britannica/ Crimean WarLinks to an external site.

Roger Fenton, Self-Portrait, 1852

As Fenton’s financial backers wanted morally instructive and uplifting pictures that would reinforce the notion of war propaganda, he made staged portraits of officers and generals on horseback in full regalia. Fenton complained that ordinary soldiers pestered him to take pictures to send back home.

Roger Fenton, Injured Zouave, Crimea, 1855

Fenton never photographed a dead body. Instead his photographs showed that getting wounded was not so bad because a heroic nurse would be there to dress the wound as demonstrated in the photograph titled Injured Zouave.

Some considered these images troubling because they were not truthful and did not depict the reality and horror of war.

The Valley of Death

The area where so many British met their death in the Crimean War was named the Valley of Death. It was a desolate lowland that lived up to its Biblical name. On October 25, 1854, the Russian artillery was in a strong position and fired on a British cavalry brigade whose attack orders had been confused through the chain of command. The British Light Brigade incurred heavy, heavy losses.

Fenton’s Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855

This exact photograph was on exhibit in 1855. When Fenton arrived in Crimea, it was months after the event and after Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the first draft of his poem below. He was aware of the national sentiment surrounding the Valley when he left Britain. He made two photos of this site, the first version had very few cannon balls and reflected the actual scene as he came upon it, but the second had many canon balls strewn across the landscape (that was the one that became famous of course). He manipulated the scene by adding cannon balls to suggest that the event was current and had just taken place. It is important to remember that during this time, society was learning to accept photographs as the custodians of reality AND for some manipulating scenes was troubling.

It was the power of the photograph that propelled the Tennyson poem as well as the complex sentiment felt by the British about the war.

Alfred Lord Tennyson said “theirs not to make reply, theirs
not to reason why, theirs but to do or die, into the
Valley of Death rode the six hundred.”

Tennyson wrote this poem about this specific event:

The Charge of the Light Brigade

I

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred.

VI

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred!

Excerpt Credit: Poetry Foundation TennysonLinks to an external site.

James Robertson, Interior of the Redan, June 1855, Salted paper print

James Robertson and Felice Beato

Robertson and Beato’s intentions were different from Fenton. They photographed landscape ruins of the aftermath of the Crimean War. But the war was over and the events were no longer current, so people lost interest in seeing them depicted in the London Press. Beato’s works were the first in history to show descriptive visions of the horror and unglamorous side of war. Critics described Robertson and Beato’s works as truthful and cold.

Felice Beato, The Execution of Mutineers, Indian Mutiny, 1858
The Indian Mutiny was a rebellion against British rule in India.

Lessons Learned

Fenton, Robertson, and Beato taught us that the effectiveness and profitability of war images depend on immediacy as in immediately getting the picture to the intended audience. Why? Because once the conflict ended, it was no longer current and people lost interest.

Brady upon his return from the
first battle of Bull Run

Civil War Photographer Matthew Brady: One of the First Renowned American Photographers

When the Civil War began, Matthew Brady mobilized his staff, packed wagons with photo supplies, and created a mobile darkroom at some of the most important battle sites in U.S. history. In doing so, his battlefield photographs brought home the gruesome reality of what war was like to the general public. He and his crew captures thousands of photographs that ranged from portrait photos of general from both the North and the South to the horrific aftermath on the battlefield.

Matthew Brady, Courtesy Library of Congress

It’s important to note that these photos, which are still studied today took place in (almost) real time (or at least after the smoke cleared) on the actual battlefields. It is also important to note that many of the Civil War photos attributed to Brady were taken by his staff instead and, during this time, it was common practice to give the photographer that financed the trip or owned the studio the photo credit. The studio of Matthew Brady or rather Matthew Brady himself received the credit instead of the field photographers such as Alexander Gardner and Timothy O’Sullivan.

Albert Berghaus, M. B. Brady’s Mew Photographic Gallery, Corner of Broadway
and Tenth Street, New York, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1861.
Wood engraving. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Three months after the start of the Civil War, Matthew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan, and a cameraman parked their photographic wagon on a bluff overlooking the Bull Run battlefield in Virginia. It was the first major land battle of the Civil War. The great Union victory turned into a calamitous retreat. Brady claimed he lost his views of the fight and also suffered from deteriorating eyesight. After this battle, he rarely went to the front lines to photograph.

Mathew Brady, Abraham Lincoln, 1860. Salted paper print
(carte-de-visite). Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Brady and his crews amassed 7000+ negatives. This collection, which focused on the notion of freedom, is considered one of the most complete volumes covering a major event to date. Brady’s approach supported traditional images of national identity, and this was something that was etched into America’s consciousness.

Many learned from the Civil War that war is long, hard, horrifically violent and yielded a high casualty count. When this war was over, no one wanted souvenir pictures.

The President and General McClellan on the Battle-field of Antietam,
Credit Given to Publisher Matthew Brady, 1961-62
(Photo actually taken by Photographer Alexander Gardner)

Mathew Brady, Soldiers on the Battlefield, 1862. Albumen silver print
by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The ability to capture a moment in time has fascinated us ever since an image was first produced in 1839. First a novelty, then a powerful medium of information that carried emotion, photography and photojournalism came of age during the American Civil War. No other conflict had ever been recorded in such detail at least until the late 20th century. Nowhere else is this truer than at Antietam, the first battlefield photographed before the dead were buried.

It started with just a few, but by 1865 dozens of photographers were hauling glass plates and volatile chemicals across the war-torn countryside. Today, because of their paramount photographic works, we can still look into the faces of soldiers and visit the locations of tragic events.

Excerpt: nps.gov/history civil warLinks to an external site.

The Public Impression of Brady’s Civil War Photographs

In October, 1862, The New York Times wrote the following about Matthew Brady’s photographs of the dead at a battlefield in Antietam (Maryland):

“Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible
reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our
dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it.”

Matthew Brady and Abraham Lincoln

Please Read: How one Matthew Brady Photo may have helped Abe Lincoln win the Election. Link to article Brady and LincolnLinks to an external site.

Alexander Gardner, 1863

Alexander Gardner, Civil War Civilian Photographer

Gardner, a self-taught master of the wet-plate process, joined the staff of General George McClellan as a civilian photographer. He made the first battle pictures of the carnage at Antietam in September 1862. The first battle corpses removed the prohibition against picturing actual war dead. Prior to this, photographs of the dead were captured but not shared. The scenes of the first battle corpses were unromantic and no one ever saw anything like it. They put an end to the romantic notion of the glory of war that Roger Fenton captured (he never took a photo of a dead body). Broken, bloated, distorted, decomposed dead soldiers served as visceral proof that war is not glorious. They were only reproduced on six occasions in the illustrated press. Perhaps the reason is because they were just too disturbing and real.

Alexander Gardner at Antietam

“When war threatened the nation in the spring of 1861, thousands of soldiers flocked to Washington, D.C., to defend the capital. Photographers followed in their footsteps capturing camp scenes and portraits of untested, jubilant greenhorns in their new uniforms. It so happened that Alexander Gardner had just opened a new studio in the capital for the most notable photographer of his era – Mathew Brady. Gardner also took advantage of the coming storm to increase his business. All of the prior war photographs were taken in studios or tents. No one had produced images in the field.” For more, go to: nps.gov/Antietam/learnLinks to an external site.

Collectible Visible Reference or News Pictures?

Gardner was in charge of Brady’s Washington studio. With war imminent, he arranges for E & H.T. Anthony, the country’s biggest dealer in photographic goods, to print and distribute hero portrait photographs of officers and soldiers with the inscription “Brady’s Photographic Art Gallery.”

Brady’s published series called “Incidents of the War” carried the credit line “Photographed by Brady.” Due to the time between taking pictures and the publication of hand drawings of photographs, they were considered collectible visible reference rather than news pictures. Photographs were still not produced in newspapers because the technology was not there yet. Photographs were made available in public spaces however. The dissemination of current event photographs occurred long after the event was over so it was no longer of interest.

Alexander Gardner, Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg, VA, 1863

Smoke, Danger, and Preparation and Manipulating Scenes

Photographs could not be taken while the battle was raging but rather after the fact due to smoke, danger, and time needed to prepare equipment. Perhaps this encouraged the manipulation scenes.

Gardner and his associates arrived at the battle of Gettysburg a few days later to photograph the bodies which were being moved and prepped for burial. Gardner constructed the photo Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter. He moved the body of a Confederate infantrymen forty yards, added a musket (rifle) to the scene which was nearby, and turned the dead man’s face towards the camera.

While this is indeed purposeful manipulation, it was a way to force the viewer (us!) to gaze directly into the tragedy of violence and premature death. The goal was not to enhance the scene or create a fraudulent message but rather to show the viewer the horror of war for the very first time. Photographs like this expanded the definition of photographic documentation and we consider the Civil War the birth of photojournalism. We tend not to blame the photographer for creating a false narrative since this was uncharted territory and no one knew how to show the viewer the shock they felt seeing this in person.

For some Americans, the Civil War photographs fulfilled the desire to know but when it was no longer a “current event,” people did not want to view these graphic images any longer.

Photographic Truthfulness

The photographer depicted the experience of war by creating and inventing the act before the camera.

Photographer’s Studio

In the studio, the photographer’s job was to arrange the sitter for a specific effect. The resulting image was considered reality. Therefore, it can be suggested that the bounds of truthfulness should not change just because the photographer has left the studio for the battlefield. The boundaries of truthfulness are the same in both scenarios, aren’t they?

What is most interesting is that no one ever questioned Gardner’s right to set the scene on the battlefield by adding a musket and by moving the body. It was accepted as an accurate and complete representation of the situation. It was like a silent agreement between the viewer and the photographer and it gave the photographer the license to adjust situations to deliver a more complete sense of subject.

Isn’t this what the painters have been doing all along?

The painter paints his perception of the sitter and that does not mean that it is a true or actual depiction of the sitter.

Gardner’s Studio, Location: 7th and D, Washington, D.C.

Gardner Opens His Own Studio, Credited Individual Photographers, and Elevated the Medium of Photography

Gardener’s work at Antietam was shown at Brady’s New York gallery, written about in the newspapers, and reproduced in Harper’s Weekly. However, it was not identified as Gardner’s individual work because he did not have his own gallery, so the works were attributed to Brady, the man who hired him and sent him out into the field. It was insulting and frustrating to talented photographers and especially to the photographer who endured the hardship and danger in trying to take the photographs in the first place.

Gardner wanted independence from Brady and began his own studio in Washington D.C. in 1863. A Majority of Brady’s finest photographers went to work for Gardner who credited each of them individually for the pictures that were published.

The Status of the Photographer is Elevated

Individual credit helped to elevate the status of the photographer especially since it was their vision just like that of the painter and sculptor.

Cover of Gardner’s Sketch Book

Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War

Notice the phrase “sketch book.” Sketchbook implies an artistic and spontaneous reaction to selected subjects. His photographs provided a Northern, moralistic overview. He added words and phrases such as “devilish,” “distorted dead,” and “they paid with their life the price of their treason,” when referring to the Confederate side.

His photographs provide an emotional view of the war, with the battle of Gettysburg as its nucleus. His book was offered in limited edition and only 200 contained actual prints sold to an elite audience for $150.

Alexander Gardner, Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators, 1865

The First American Photographic Picture Story

Gardner also made portraits of Lincoln and prison studies of Lincoln’s assassination conspirators in an album in 1865. For their executions, Gardne

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