Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 6 Up–Armstrong chronicles the Civil War from Lincoln's election to his death with both a storylike narrative of events and a photo-essay. Unlike the war images we see today, Brady's pictures were either posed or they were of still objects. Since exposure in the brightest daylight in the 1860s took up to 10 seconds, even the slightest movement resulted in blurred images. Readers see soldiers, military camps, civilians, farms, battlefields: these same pictures were the first visual representations of war for America's nonmilitary folks. This book is also a look at early photographic techniques and offers a description of Brady's rare collection. The section titles use early photography terminology, referencing the series of steps that the photographer would have followed. All images are greyscale and by today's standards, the pictures are fuzzy and clouded with indistinct lines; when readers remember that the pictures are more than 100 years old, they should recognize their exquisiteness, grandeur, and genius.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. Readers may need some background to fully appreciate this, but Armstrong doesn't disappoint in a slice of Civil War history that uses photographer Matthew Brady as its touchstone. As the book opens, Brady mortgages his thriving business to fund, train, and equip a stable of photographers to document Union troops in Virginia and the East. The text smoothly juxtaposes the complex decisions Lincoln faced as commander in chief and the devastation at places such as Fredericksburg and Gettysburg against the task of taking photographs in the field. The bloody charges and the daily grind are vividly evoked in both words and carefully selected and labeled photos--some familiar, many unsettling. Intriguing, if unnecessary, text insets ("Photos Not Taken") challenge readers to imagine pictures they might have taken had they been part of the history. Packed with well-documented quotes, this truly absorbing account, written with both honesty and surprising grace, will sear the conflict in memory in the same way the photos did--and still do. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Mathew B. Brady was already a famous photographer by the time the Civil War began. But the war gave Brady something else: The chance to make a RECORD OF A WAR -- this war -- in a way that had never been done before: WITH TRUE-TO-LIFE PICTURES INSTEAD OF JUST WORDS. He hired field photographers to travel with the troops, equipped them with cameras and wagons filled with supplies, and sent them out with the directive to make a visual record of the war and to show people scenes they could have only read about before. The pictures the field photographers sent back were HAUNTING, BEAUTIFUL, DEVASTATING, AND TOTALLY UNFORGETTABLE. And thousands of them included the notation "Photo by Brady." Though Brady didn't actually take the photographs, he was the genius behind them. His vision and foresight gave the country images that not only touched the people at the time, but have gone on to leave an indelible mark on the collective memory of this country. And the name of Mathew Brady will always be remembered with them. In Photo By Brady, Jennifer Armstrong tells the story of the Civil War as seen through the lenses of its recorders. It is a moving and elegant look at the brutal and deadly time.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Using photographs to document the Civil War was right up Mathew Brady's alley. In the 1840s, he had created a photographic catalogue of America's most distinguished citizens, and his influence became such that Lincoln could say, "Brady and the Cooper Union speech made me president." It was Brady's art that helped Lincoln gain a national reputation before the 1860 election. Now, Brady brought the war-remote and unseen-to the people, and the war, the president, and the photographer will forever be entwined in our imaginations. Just as a photographer frames his subject, Armstrong frames hers, focusing on the war in Virginia and photographers based in New York City and Washington. The narrative is chock full of fascinating details, many drawn from soldiers' diaries and letters, and photographs are liberally sprinkled throughout the volume. Extensive picture credits and a useful bibliography round out a handsome volume sure to be a fixture in Civil War collections. (source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 9-14)


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices