What was once a mere way of gathering keepsakes of the deceased, soon got commercialized. A journey of 20 years that started prior to the actual Civil War, was captured in pictures, leaving a wide-reaching impact on leaders and the people with memories of the lost.
We’ve all seen those Civil War pictures, haven’t we? The photo albums contain images of black-and-white capturing bearded Union generals or mustachioed Confederate colonels as they watch piles of dead bodies being stacked on the battlefield and deceased soldiers around the camping tent.
But as we walk 150 years down the memory lane, on Veterans Day, we wonder what impact the Civil War photographs had on the people of those days. Also, these Civil War pictures narrated the stories of the soldiers’ lives.
Historians say that the photography did bring a change in several ways. While a few families of war veterans held them as memories of their fathers and sons, other pictures did help political leaders for image-building. One such example is President Lincoln’s portrait by Matthew Brady, which resulted in him being re-elected as the president.
The wrath of the war captured in these Civil War pictures did make a public appearance for the first time in New York and Washington. It was later featured in newspapers and magazines worldwide.
Monetising the portraits of the bloodbath
Talking of exhibitions, the New York Times, while reviewing the same Brady’s photo archives of the Battle of Antietam on Oct 20,1862, said that the war brought home the terrible reality and earnestness of war.
Though war photography had remained for over 20 years before the Civil War broke out, the inception of new techniques and commercialization of the pictures did help in accentuating the talent of such a sadistic form of photography. The invention of the tintype metal image and ambrotype glass picture were shared with the masses in bulk to keep as memories in wooden and glass cases.
Origin of War Photographers
Captured by small-town and traveling camp photographers, which, by the time the war broke out in 1862, were almost 5,000 in number, gave the world millions of Civil War photographs captured by them.
Besides their cold-blooded Civil War pictures, building the morale of the soldiers were profile shots of officers, which were later seen distributed in postcard formats too. In fact, based on such noteworthy private collections of these photographers, an exhibition called ‘The Last Full Measure,’ exhibiting portraits of soldiers and war veterans, was held on April 12 by the library of Congress.
During that period, another form of photographs that came into existence was carte de visite, which had pictures made with glass and wet-plate negatives to increase mass production. Distributed as trading cards; this mode circulated many portraits of generals, statesmen, actors, and other celebrities.
Appreciation is always followed by criticism. However, in defence of these Civil War pictures, some called it a matter of unfortunate occurrences, as photography, at such intense moments, needed wagons of equipment and chemicals that weren’t always available.
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On the occasion of veterans day, we take a look at the origin of war photography in America. Do share this article with anyone who’s interested.