From Roger Fenton's Combat Photography to Robert Capa's War Photography

Roger Fenton

 

Roger Fenton is a British photographer. In 1853, he was appointed to be the official photographer of the Crimean War. This made him one of the very first war photographers in history. Throughout his career as a war photographer, he took roughly 360 photos. He went to the warzone to take photos during the Crimean War between the Russians and the British, French, and Turks. Because of the lack of technology due to the early stages of photography, it took Fenton a long time to take a photo. The majority of his work was photos of unmoving objects and posed photos. He also took a lot of landscape photos during the Crimean War.  His goal when taking photos was to glamorize war and take it away from what it was usually associated with, which was the blood and the violence. His photo never featured soldiers who were injured or dying, nor were they of explosions or of violence. After his career as a war photographer, he left the industry and returned to practice law. His contribution to war photography is still very much appreciated and his work is on display in museums and galleries.

Another one of his photos during the Crimean War, this photo is of Balaklava which is one of the army sites during the war. Because of the lack of advancement in photography in that time, the photo features unmoving objects and focuses on the landscape.

This was one of Roger Fenton’s most famous photographs, The Valley of Shadow Death. As you can see, his photographs stay true to his vision, which takes a step back from the aspect of the blood and violence of war, and focuses on the landscape.

 

Mathew Brady 

Mathew Brady was born in warren County, New York He was known for taking the most important photographs of historical personalities during the 19^th century.  He was the first one to take photographs of the American Civil War. A film maker who is famous for his program television series the “civil war” said his show would not have been possible if it wasn’t for Mathew Brady photographs, he called the photographs “the backbone of the series” and also one of the reasons the civil war is much more popular than the revolutionary war was because with Mathew Brady’s photographs taken at that time was a very clear portrait of witnessing the war and its heroes. The photos Mathew Brady took were truthful and included the bad side of war, unlike Fenton’s whose only showed the “good” side. Mathew Brady lived the last days of his life alone, and sick, he devoted his life for preserving the history of his country. His photographs were taken by him towards the end of his life he said that no will ever know how much this photographs cost him, he said it almost cost him his life. In January 15 he died alone and forgotten. His photographs and the love for his country will always be remembered by millions of people all over the world. One of Mathew Brady’s famous quote about photography is “My greatest aim has been to advance the art of photography and to make it what I think I have, a great and truthful medium of history."

 Battle of Gettysburg

Dead at Antietam

Alexander Gardner

Alexander Gardner was a 61-year-old Scottish photographer who began his full time career after moving to the United States in 1856. He focused more on the American Civil War and the Late Abraham Lincoln. When you look at Gardner’s work it is filled with war photos of dead soldiers or portraits. The photos can make someone uneasy, as they documented the more gruesome acts of war. He had the chance to witness the, “battle at Manassas”, Gardner was dispatched as a photographer to record the war. Although Gardner staged some photos, not all were taken this way. Gardner did make a remarkable name for himself and managed to have over 70 of his shots in the New York gallery. Gardner was also known for taking the last known photograph of President Lincoln, just 5 days before his assassination.

Alexander Gardner's most famous faked photograph

Dead confederate soldier's in the "Devil's Den"

Robert Capa

Robert Capa is actually an American identity that Hungarian born Andre Friedman and Polish born Gerda Tero created to sell Friedman’s photographs. His most iconic photographs come from WWII. He risked his life on many occasions to get the most truthful and powerful photos of war her could. He would achieve this by taking his pictures at very close range, sometimes only inches away from the fatally wounded soldiers. His famous quote “If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough,” was one he lived by when it came to his work. Capa is one of the many wartime photographers who risked their lives just to capture the truth of war on film.  Robert Capa, after having cheated death several times, vowed to never risk his life doing war photography again. However, in 1954, he agreed to take photographs of the conflict between the French and The Viet Minh in Indochina, for LIFE magazine. While attempting to get as close as he could, he stepped on a land mine and was killed.



D-Day

 

The Fallen Soldier

 

 

Similarities and Differences

There is really only one similarity between all four of these photographers, and that is that they all produced wartime and combat photographs. Although the objective of capturing war on camera was the same between them, the way in which they all achieved this was different.

Robert Fenton only showed the “good” side of the war, he did this by taking photographs that glamorized war and didn’t show any blood, violence or wounded soldiers. This was done in compliance with the government as an attempt at propaganda.

Like Robert Fenton, Gardner’s photos weren’t truthful as he staged many of them for an artistic effect. However, unlike Fenton, they didn’t glamorize war and showed the more gruesome side of it.

Mathew Brady wasn’t like Fenton or Gardner. He showed all sides of war in a truthful way with no manipulation or staging.

Robert Capa was like this as well, although his photos were better and more iconic as they were taken at very close range. Capa risked his life and did what he could to get the most natural, action packed shots of war, and that’s why his are the most known today.

 

 

http://www.biography.com/people/roger-fenton-9293018

http://allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html

http://allworldwars.com/image/072/Fenton247.jpg

http://allworldwars.com/image/072/Fenton000.jpg

http://www.mathewbrady.com/

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/alexander-gardner.html

http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html





DB Week 4

What was Stieglitz’s main interest? What’s Pictorialism and what is Naturalism? Did he stayed devoted to this movements? What do you see on his photographs?

Stieglitz’s main interest was to get photography recognized as a form of art, just as painting or drawing was. Pictorialism was a movement that Stieglitz was very devoted to at one point. Pictorialism supported the idea that photography used as art needed to challenge other forms of art such as paintings and drawings. Pictorialists understood that a camera was a tool to them, just as a paintbrush was a tool to a painter, and they manipulated their photos in the darkroom. Naturalism is a style of photography. It focuses on two things – human and nature. In this style, humans are generally used as the main subject and nature is the supporting subject. In these photographs, the supporting subject(s) were often blurred so the focus was on the main subject. Alfred Stieglitz didn’t stay devoted to this movement after realizing he felt as though his photographs didn’t look like art. In 1923 he said “My photographs look like photographs and they therefore can’t be considered art.”

What was White’s impact on photography as a medium? What do you see on his photographs?

Minor White came up with the idea of “Equivalence.” He was a very spiritual man and he believed that the act of taking and viewing photos was spiritual. He was a textural photographer (bushes, trees, cracks in a road etc.) Equivalence was mainly the idea that each photograph was open to interpretation by whoever was viewing it. Their interpretation was based on their experiences, what memories the photo brought up and how they felt when they looked at it.

What do you see on Man Ray’s photos? Are they similar or absolutely different than Stieglitz’s photos?

When I look at Man Rays photos, I think of how abstract they are. They portray real feelings (such as the photograph he took after losing someone he loved, the feeling of sadness was real, but the tears were not.) His photos are very different from Alfred Stieglitz’s. Whereas Stieglitz’s tend to be more realistic, his are more abstract expressions.

What do you see on Moholo-Nagy’s photographs?

Moholo-Nagy’s photographs are even more abstract then Man Ray’s. His, like Man Rays, take on a very different tone from Stieglitz’s and White’s. They have little reality in them and are for sure photographs used as a form of art.

Are these photographers painters? Do they all paint with their cameras or maybe only some of them?

These photographers are ‘painters’ in the way that they use a tool (camera) to create art. I believe they all paint with their camera’s, although not in the same way. A painter paints with a brush, and a photographer paints with a camera. That is the only similarity these photographers have. Whether it is a stage, manipulated or completely real photograph, they’ve all been ‘painted’ by a man (or woman) and their camera.

DB Week 3: Can Art be Mechanically Reproduced?

When something is reproduced so many times, is that art? What’s the importance of mechanical reproducibility of the art? What was the impact on mechanical reproducibility on the society?

Yes, I believe that a piece of art is still art even if it’s been reproduced many times. Art is different in the eyes of everyone, so if one person take, say, the Mona Lisa, and reproduces it in a different, more modern style, it’s still art. It’s no longer the Mona Lisa, but in their eyes they’ve created something beautiful. The importance of mechanical reproducibility of photography is that it helps artists to create what they’ve envisioned in their mind. They can take an original photo and manipulate it with computer editing programs in any way to make it what they wanted it to be. As for our society, it has both positive and negative impact. Mechanically reproduced art means that it is more available to everyone. Before cameras, if you wanted to see classic pieces of amazing art, you would have to pay high museum entrance fees or travel to places like Paris, whereas now you can view them all online. However, mechanical reproduction also means it’s easier for those classic pieces to be copied and replaced, so if you do travel all the way to Paris, you might not actually be seeing the original copy at all!

Is photography art or contribution to the art? Is it just a tool used by artists?

Of course photography is a tool used by artists, just like paintings and sculptures are. However, I also believe photography can be both art and a contribution to art. To me, photography is art when it is a complete original copy of a photo, with little or no editing or manipulation, whether it’s been taken in a quick moment or completely staged. I think it becomes a contribution to art when it’s been reproduced so many times and it’s been edited and manipulated beyond recognition. Like I said before, to me that is still considered art. Although it might not be in the eyes of the artist (unless they’re the ones who ended up editing it) who took the original photo, it obviously is in the eyes of the artist who manipulated it.

How did Henry Peach Robinson create ‘Fading Away’? What was the reason?

Henry Peach Robinson created ‘Fading Away’ by taking five separate negatives and combining them into one photograph. The photograph depicts the death of a young girl who is surrounded by here grieving family. It was done in 1858, and at that time photography was used for less controversial things, like portraits. It was a controversial picture as many people believed a scene like that shouldn’t be portrayed with such a literal form of art, but since it was an acceptable scene to be done with other mediums, such as paint, Henry wanted to show it could be done just as well with a camera.

Photography has impacted the world of art and influenced some changes in the area of accessibility to art. If mechanical reproduction created revolution, what is happening now with the digitalization?

Photos can now be reproduced and manipulated with almost no effort at all, and shared with millions at the click of a button. This is all as a result of digitalization, and so I believe that will also create a revolution.

Week 1, Activity 2 - My Introduction! (:



Hey, my name's Calyssa and I'm a second year baking and pastry arts student. I studied at Queens University for a semester, and realizing psychology wasn't my calling, dropped out and came to GBC to pursue a degree in what I really love to do. I chose two electives this semester, photography and mythology, as I have an interest in both of these things. Though it's a small interest, it's an interest none the less. My interest in photography probably stems from my mom, she absolutely loves it and owns a Nikon D80 (I believe that's what it is) that I occasionally borrow. She's the one who dreams of becoming a professional photographer, and so I am nowhere near as good as her, but I figured I'd try the course out and see where it takes me. I was glad to see the course isn't so focused on taking a bunch of pictures for every assignment since I don't own a very good camera, and looking through the assigments I think (in my opinion) it's a happy medium between either shooting or finding photos and actually writing about them.

My sister, my dad and I. (middle)

I thought I'd include two pictures I took while I was in Rome. One is from four years ago, and the other was from this past summer, but I like the way both of them turned out. Although they may not be what some professionals would describe as good, they're special to me none the less. (:  

 

The Roman Colosseum

The Trevi Fountain