War Photography is an “invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering” (Sontag, 117). Photography had a great impact on the public's perception of the United States Civil War. The war ran from 1861 to 1865 and was the first war to be extensively documented with photography and distributed among various newspapers, and magazines across the nation. Photographers captured images of everyday life, battle scenes, but most influential, the aftermath of the war. This essays aims to discuss how the war was represented through the use of photography as well as, how war photography affects people. These war photographs produced feelings of devastation, and desire and it exposes a partial truth
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“The first idea is that public attention is steered by the attentions of the media—which means, most decisively, images. Photography illustrate the determining influence of photographs in shaping what catastrophes and crises we pay attention to, what we care about, and ultimately what evaluations are attached to these conflicts” (Sontag, 104-105). In the American Civil War the propaganda imagery focused on patriotic themes to advance the aims of the Union and the Confederacy. At this time the northern and southern states were at war. Many southern states practiced slavery, while the North supported Lincoln and did not own slaves. The public payed attention to what the photographers published. Whether there were more photos for one side or they selectively published, the public only sees what the media wants them to. For example, the propaganda shot of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America. Titled, “Jeff Davis in disguise, as he appeared at the time of his capture, 1865” (Skylar). He was a political fugitive that attempted to flee while disguising himself as a woman. Northern artists and photographers seized upon these rumors of cowardly escape and created images like this one to show the political story by emasculating the fallen leader of the …show more content…
The effort of returning from this contemplation to “normal” life triggers feelings of despair, indignation or guilt” (9). The role of spectator makes many such viewers feel helpless to act upon what they are seeing. It is impossible to think of a time when photos of war and destruction weren’t plastered on the front page of newspapers. To viewers images of landscapes of war have become uninteresting, it isn’t a battle action shots and the gruesome war deaths we have come to expect. What makes those killed in wars an appealing subject? It seems images of dead soldiers were even more impactful and appealed to the public. The graphic horrors of war: missing limbs, huge abdominal wounds and severed heads. “If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards, ‘he has done something very like it.” Was said about Mathew Brady famous war photographer of the time.
Are photographers going too far to represent? Some photographers went so far as to take pictures of the freshly dug graves of the recently slain or moved the bodies to get a more dramatic shot. The photos were so gruesome that a Washington surgeon used them to teach medical
“The first idea is that public attention is steered by the attentions of the media—which means, most decisively, images. Photography illustrate the determining influence of photographs in shaping what catastrophes and crises we pay attention to, what we care about, and ultimately what evaluations are attached to these conflicts” (Sontag, 104-105). In the American Civil War the propaganda imagery focused on patriotic themes to advance the aims of the Union and the Confederacy. At this time the northern and southern states were at war. Many southern states practiced slavery, while the North supported Lincoln and did not own slaves. The public payed attention to what the photographers published. Whether there were more photos for one side or they selectively published, the public only sees what the media wants them to. For example, the propaganda shot of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America. Titled, “Jeff Davis in disguise, as he appeared at the time of his capture, 1865” (Skylar). He was a political fugitive that attempted to flee while disguising himself as a woman. Northern artists and photographers seized upon these rumors of cowardly escape and created images like this one to show the political story by emasculating the fallen leader of the …show more content…
The effort of returning from this contemplation to “normal” life triggers feelings of despair, indignation or guilt” (9). The role of spectator makes many such viewers feel helpless to act upon what they are seeing. It is impossible to think of a time when photos of war and destruction weren’t plastered on the front page of newspapers. To viewers images of landscapes of war have become uninteresting, it isn’t a battle action shots and the gruesome war deaths we have come to expect. What makes those killed in wars an appealing subject? It seems images of dead soldiers were even more impactful and appealed to the public. The graphic horrors of war: missing limbs, huge abdominal wounds and severed heads. “If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards, ‘he has done something very like it.” Was said about Mathew Brady famous war photographer of the time.
Are photographers going too far to represent? Some photographers went so far as to take pictures of the freshly dug graves of the recently slain or moved the bodies to get a more dramatic shot. The photos were so gruesome that a Washington surgeon used them to teach medical