Question of the Week: 11/7-11/13/22
In light of the recent news about photographs from Gettysburg…
What historical Gettysburg photo is most interesting/impactful to you? Why?
In light of the recent news about photographs from Gettysburg…
What historical Gettysburg photo is most interesting/impactful to you? Why?
Even though William Frassanito has proven that it was a staged scene, i still find the photograph of the dead Confederate sharpshooter in the Devil’s Den very impactful. At least the photographer was able to capture the young soldier’s demise as opposed to his remains merely joining thousands of others in various unmarked and forgotten graves. I have long been impressed with Mr. Frassanito’s amazing work on Gettysburg, Antietam, and the Overland Campaign in being able to identify the then and now locations of so many photographs. His ability to identify the instances where the photographer merely changes the angles of their photos of the same subjects and stage others to record the carnage is, to me, beyond comparison.
The three Confederate prisoners whose countenance reveals an awareness that they represent the just side in the conflict. The side that represented the prevailing sentiment of the Founders. The organic law upon which the the union of States was created that says true liberty is vested in government by consent of the governed. It was their side who fought for that ideal, something the other side had abandoned and was willing to use war to deny.
The three defiant Rebel prisoners.
The photo that probably shows Lincoln at the speakers’ platform at the national cemetery dedication.
For me it is the photo that is titled “Harvest of Death”. There is another one that shows the bodies of several dead horses lying around a white multi-story house. Both are hideously compelling, in that they show the devastating effects of war on man and beast!
I was just in Gettysburg a week ago and got to spend a fair bunch of time in the field south of the Rose farm where so many of the “death studies” were photographed. Lining up the “then and now” shots is a cool exercise, but quite profound. Dead soldiers were obviously everywhere in that vast battlefield, but standing in the exact spot where you know they were means something more, something heavier.
My pick would be that classic photo of the disemboweled, bloated corpse with the missing hand nearby. As I photographed that precise spot, I remembered Bill Frassanito’s comment that war truly is the greatest of obscenities.