More work from Matthew Brady

During the past few days in class, we had discussed the legendary Matthew Brady.  He is ultimately responsible for photographing the Civil War and bringing the harshness of war to a reality.  Because of him, people realized that war is not a beautiful thing and certainly shouldn't be glorified.  The soldiers should be honored for their bravery and courage, but the idea of war in itself shouldn't be.  

I got the photograph above from a historical Civil War website and it was photographed by Matthew Brady.  One thing that irked me a bit during class was the discussion about him 'cheating' by moving dead bodies to get a better composition/photograph.  I honestly don't think that it matters because the subject he covered desperatelyneeded to be brought to the attention of the people.  Like I mentioned before, war isn't a thing of beauty and people didn't know the brutality of it since there was no media coverage like today.  If he had to cheat and move a few bodies to knock some sense into people, then I would be happy to be called a cheater if I were Matthew Brady.  He got the necessary point across.  Mission accomplished.

To get back onto topic, this photograph shows a dead soldier surrounded by fighting instruments and destroyed walls.  Considering this photograph was taken in the late 1800's shortly after the invention of the camera, I feel the quality of this black and white photograph is fantastic.  The clarity is excellent, and the shadows really give it an eerie feeling.  The angles (naturally or done by Brady,...who knows) of the log and broken items also create a feeling of uneasiness because nothing is facing the exact same direction.  The center of attention is of course the dead soldier, and since we are looking right into his face, it creates a huge amount of tension.  When I come to think of it, it's very rare that we see photographs in the newspaper or on TV where the dead person's face is exposed.  It's too emotional because many people will recognize the person, and not everybody would like to see their dead loved ones displayed for the world to see.  There is more respect in todays world,... in these terms anyways.  

When I was looking at Brady's collection of war photographs, I chose this one because it's often more effective to just show one dead body versus a hundred of them lined up.  The direct angle focusing on the face makes this photograph effective.  My eyes continue to look at his face because human eyes naturally search for things they can recognize.  A picture consisting of fifty mutilated bodies can also be effective in many ways, but this particular image gives a face to the deceased, it's more personable and concentrates on the individual.  This immediately makes the audience first think about the loved ones of this dead soldier, and in turn, forces them to think about their own family.  It hits home for all viewers and I can appreciate that.