Civil War Photography and Portrait Artist,
Matthew Brady
Brady: 1863
Matthew Brady's dedication to Civil War Photography has made him the most well known of all documentary photographers.
In fact the Brady team of Civil War photographers were responsible for some 3,500 negatives of the war.
Virtually any Civil War photography seen in a text book or documentary was produced under the name of Matthew Brady.
Brady: 1863
Seredipity- It's Who You Know
Brady Studio
Brady was never sure of his exact birth date, but his tombstone lists 1822 - 1895. Similarly little is known of his family except that he was raised in Saratoga Springs, New York and his parents were Andrew and Julia Brady.
His earliest recorded friendship was with the artist William Page (1811 -1885). In turn Page was a student of the artist and inventor (inventor of the telegraph), Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872) to whom he introduced Brady. Brady then enrolled at New York University where Morse was an instructor, and, during the early 1840's, supported himself by making jewel cases.
Life's direction is often influenced by "who you know", and Morse had met Louis Daguerre on an earlier trip to France, and brought the Daguerrotype (An early photographic process with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plateAnswers.com)to the United States. Matthew was fascinated by the creative possibilites of the invention, and created a special case for Daguerrotypes. In 1844 he successfully opened his own Daguerreiran Miniture Gallery on Broadway in New York City.
The Daguerreian Society presents the Daguerrotype Process at this link. This account is from the Scientific American of Jan. 1887.
"The Camera Is The Eye Of History" (Brady)
Edwin Booth & Edwina
Despite his failing eyesight, Brady followed his vision to preserve history by photographing the important and famous figures of his time. Among them were Cornelius Vanderbilt, Zachary Taylor, Daniel Webster and Shakespearean actor, Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
His portrait of Booth and Booth's daughter, Edwina, utilized the popular new imaging process, Carte de Viste, where a thin paper photograph (2 1/4 × 3 1/2 inches) was mounted on a thicker paper card(2 1/2 × 4 inches). These photo cards became a type of calling card which people exchanged with each other.
Matthew consistently worked to improve the artistry of his photography. Another revolutionary technique he implemented was the wet-plate process which produced inexpensive, high quality negatives allowing duplicate photographs from the same negative.
As a result of the wet-plate process, common people as well as the elite could suddenly own a photograph of their leaders.
Scotland born photographer, Alexander Gardner, encouraged him to work with these new techniques in order to modernize his photography.
Civil War photography was created with the Wet Plate Process. Follow this link for a graphic detailed explanation.
An especially good year for Matthew was 1851 when he married Juliette Handy, his wife for 40 years. In that same year he won first prize in a Daguerrotype competition sponsored by Queen Victoria as part of the first World's Fair.
His portrait of Booth and Booth's daughter, Edwina, utilized the popular new imaging process, Carte de Viste, where a thin paper photograph (2 1/4 × 3 1/2 inches) was mounted on a thicker paper card(2 1/2 × 4 inches). These photo cards became a type of calling card which people exchanged with each other.
Matthew consistently worked to improve the artistry of his photography. Another revolutionary technique he implemented was the wet-plate process which produced inexpensive, high quality negatives allowing duplicate photographs from the same negative.
As a result of the wet-plate process, common people as well as the elite could suddenly own a photograph of their leaders.
Scotland born photographer, Alexander Gardner, encouraged him to work with these new techniques in order to modernize his photography.
Civil War photography was created with the Wet Plate Process. Follow this link for a graphic detailed explanation.
An especially good year for Matthew was 1851 when he married Juliette Handy, his wife for 40 years. In that same year he won first prize in a Daguerrotype competition sponsored by Queen Victoria as part of the first World's Fair.
Lincoln Inaugeral Portrait by Matthew Brady
Lincoln by Brady
Brady pursued his calling as a photographer historian by opening a studio in Washington DC to be closer to those in power. Alexander Gardner was the manager, but the studio was never especially successful.
Nevertheless President Abraham Lincoln responded to his invitation for "a sitting", and arrived at the studio on Pennsylvania Avenue February 23, 1861 for his inaugeral portrait.
A neighboring artist in the same building commented of Lincoln, "He did not utter a word, and he seemed absolutely indifferent to all that was going on aobut him; and he gave the impression that he was a man overwhelmed with anxiety, fatigue and care". (Meredith, Roy: The world of Matthew Brady)
"A spirit in my feet said, 'Go', and I went."
Robert E. Lee
Photojournalism really began in 1860 with Civil War Photography, and the true intitiator was Matthew Brady.
Brady was not the only photographer shooting the war, but where others would prop and manipulate bodies and terrain for a more artistic or shocking photo, he insisted on truth and realism. He felt compelled to document the carnage and the men who fought and led it as well as their more peaceful and mundane moments while resting or eating.
In response to his wife and friends who told him to stay home and manage his successful portrait studio, he replied,"I felt I had to go. A spirit in my feet said, 'Go', and I went."
Due to his increasingly dimished eyesight and the increasing extent of the war, he hired a team of approximately 20 photographers to assist in the daunting task of chronicling the war. He organized travelling crews using wagons to carry the cumbersome metal plates and chemicals for the wet-plate process which had to be completed within an hour of taking the picture. Civil War photography was anything but point and shoot.
Brady was not the only photographer shooting the war, but where others would prop and manipulate bodies and terrain for a more artistic or shocking photo, he insisted on truth and realism. He felt compelled to document the carnage and the men who fought and led it as well as their more peaceful and mundane moments while resting or eating.
In response to his wife and friends who told him to stay home and manage his successful portrait studio, he replied,"I felt I had to go. A spirit in my feet said, 'Go', and I went."
Due to his increasingly dimished eyesight and the increasing extent of the war, he hired a team of approximately 20 photographers to assist in the daunting task of chronicling the war. He organized travelling crews using wagons to carry the cumbersome metal plates and chemicals for the wet-plate process which had to be completed within an hour of taking the picture. Civil War photography was anything but point and shoot.
Locked Up In A Secret Drawer
Brady Wagon
Photographers Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan (Timothy also served as a 1st lieutenant in the Union army during 1861) were valued assistants and members of Brady's civil war photography teams, and excellent photographers themselves. Matthew purchased additional Civil War photographs from other photojournalists, conditional upon every photo bearing his name.
He and his teams were welcomed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line because of their courage, compassion and accuracy. They were true reporters. They didn't take sides. They were right there in the thick of the battle, but they also haunted the killing fields in the stillness after the battle. The dead were much easier to photograph for equipment that had little tolerance for movement.
In all he spent $100,000 in Civil War photography documenting the war. Initially his photographs were very popular allowing the populace to glimpse the reality of the war. But as the war dragged on his very real photographs of death and dying became obnoxious to the people, reminding them painfully of the deaths of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons.
As he looked through Brady's photographs for his son among the dead at Antietam, Oliver Wendell Holmes mourned, "These wrecks of manhood thrown together in careless heaps,or ranged in ghastly rows for burial were but alive yesterday.... Many people would not look through this series. Many, having seen it and dreamed of its horrors, would lock it up in some secret drawer."
He and his teams were welcomed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line because of their courage, compassion and accuracy. They were true reporters. They didn't take sides. They were right there in the thick of the battle, but they also haunted the killing fields in the stillness after the battle. The dead were much easier to photograph for equipment that had little tolerance for movement.
In all he spent $100,000 in Civil War photography documenting the war. Initially his photographs were very popular allowing the populace to glimpse the reality of the war. But as the war dragged on his very real photographs of death and dying became obnoxious to the people, reminding them painfully of the deaths of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons.
As he looked through Brady's photographs for his son among the dead at Antietam, Oliver Wendell Holmes mourned, "These wrecks of manhood thrown together in careless heaps,or ranged in ghastly rows for burial were but alive yesterday.... Many people would not look through this series. Many, having seen it and dreamed of its horrors, would lock it up in some secret drawer."
Market Collapse
Antietam Dead
By the end of the war, his thousands of prints (approximately 3,500), primarily Civil War photographs, lanquished in storage for lack of an audience. He had accumulated large debts both in hazard pay to his photographers and for supplies and equipment which were largely purchased on credit.
In 1875 the Federal Government paid him $25,000 for his collection of Civil War photography and negatives, but it wasn't enough to pay his debts, or to finance new ventures. He worked at times for other photographers, but his wife's death in 1887 left him a devastated and broken man.
In 1875 the Federal Government paid him $25,000 for his collection of Civil War photography and negatives, but it wasn't enough to pay his debts, or to finance new ventures. He worked at times for other photographers, but his wife's death in 1887 left him a devastated and broken man.
Bankrupt, Broke, but What a Legacy!
Brady @ Brady Gallery
Matthew Brady died on April 15,1895 in the Alms Ward of New York Presbyterian Hospital just 15 days short of an exhibition of his war images at Carnegie Hall.
He was blind, broke and alone. The use of his fortune to fund his Civil War photographs had bankrupted him personally, but had left a historically accurate account of the Civil War for millions after him.
As a nation, we will be forever grateful.
Now that you've completed Matthew Brady's Civil War Photography, you are invited to explore the biographies of other Famous Photographers
History of Photography Highlights of the 1800s
Ansel Adams, A Legend In His Own Time;
Edward Curtis had a passion to capture Native American culture just as Matthew Brady was inspired toward Civil War Photography.
Dorothea Lange, Depression Era Photojournalist
Alfred Eisenstadt of VJ Day photo fame.
He was blind, broke and alone. The use of his fortune to fund his Civil War photographs had bankrupted him personally, but had left a historically accurate account of the Civil War for millions after him.
As a nation, we will be forever grateful.
Now that you've completed Matthew Brady's Civil War Photography, you are invited to explore the biographies of other Famous Photographers
History of Photography Highlights of the 1800s
Ansel Adams, A Legend In His Own Time;
Edward Curtis had a passion to capture Native American culture just as Matthew Brady was inspired toward Civil War Photography.
Dorothea Lange, Depression Era Photojournalist
Alfred Eisenstadt of VJ Day photo fame.