Jamie Braunstein

Photography in the Civil War:Bringing the Battle to the Home Front

Why Focus on the Civil War?

First major conflict extensively photographed▪ Battle field photographs ▪ 1 Million photographs

Images widely distributed and sold nationwide

Technological Advances in photography

Technological Advances

Wet-Plate Photography

Stereo-Views

Citizens Witness to Carnage

“Bloody Lane”

“Incidents of the War: A Harvest of Death”

Forming a Medical Perspective

R.B. Bontecou

Political Figures

Abraham Lincoln

Ulysses S. Grant

Keepsakes

Discussion Questions Should photographers be allowed to take pictures of

the battlefield? Overall, does this have a positive or negative impact on the public’s perception of war?

Some of the photographs taken by Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner have been rumored to be staged. If this is true, do you think the photographs would have had

less of an impact had they not been staged? What does photographers feeling the need to stage

photographs say about how war-related information and media is relayed to the public?

What does this mean for the way we should approach war-related media?