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

Group Members:

Afroja Akhi , Terry Bint, RaulCalads Ripardo, Stephanie Beausoleil, Yumo Emily Wang

Roger Fenton

Roger Fenton a British photographer was born in 1819 and came from a fairly well off family giving him financial freedom to pursue the arts. Fenton is first reported to have begun with painting and then, began photography in 1852 (History of Photography).

The Crimean War photographs by Fenton taken under pressure were one of the first attempts to systematically document war with photography. Even given the trials inherent with this job, Fenton managed to accumulate 360 photographs in less than 4 months (History of Photography).

Fenton took a very specific approach to taking his war photos. There were no photos of combat, nor other results of war. His photographs were of camps, camaraderie forts, trenches and such. This was total propaganda as an attempt to gain support for the war. He admittedly took some great photo’s, though there were argues, they could not be up to his full artistic potential as he did not have the freedom to express it in his own way (Britain Tate).

As well, in 1854 Fenton began photographing the British Royal Family. He has photographed landscapes, architecture and people of renown. He accomplished a lot in just over ten years of his photography career (Britain Tate).

At the end of the war, his photographs were not of any use as people moved on and forgot Fenton. Photography historians on the other, lament his contribution to photography (History of Photography).

Photographs by Roger Fenton  

Crimean War

            

                           Rievaulx Abbey, 1854                        

Dome of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin, Moscow, 1852

Princesses Helena and Louise, 1856

Alexander Gardener

Alexander Gardener was born in Scotland on October 17, 1821 and then he moved to the United States in 1856. He developed his career and became professional in the United States.  It was in 1851, Hyde Park, London, where he was visiting The Great Exhibition and saw the photography of American Mathew Brady, since then he started to show interest in the field. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, American President Abraham Lincoln and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination. He was a Civil War photographer, during the war he became one of the top photographers in the field. As a Civil War photographer, he took around 70 photos of the battlefield two days after the battle. It was the first time of the war had been photographed. He took plenty of photos and a lot of them became very famous. He also took a photo of President Abraham Lincoln and five days later, on April 14, 1856, Lincoln was assassinated. This was one of his famous photos because he took the last photo of him which was historical and remarkable (Encyclopedia, Britannica).

At the early time of his career he worked for photographer Mathew Brady who he admired a lot. Gardener was a quiet dour intelligent man. The photos that he took for the Civil War were all credited to Brady although Gardener wished that he could put his own name as the photographer. He left Brady's studio and set up his own business in 1836 due to the reason of attribution of photographs and copyright. In his career, he photographed parties accused of war crimes during the civil war, including their summary executions (Civil War Trust).

Gardener’s contribution to the world was he let us know what really happened during the Civil War, he used his way to record the historical moments. As there might been conspiracy of some people who may lie about what had happened during the war, but his photos were the vivid evidence that could never lie. All the details about the war were told by his photographs. Gardener used his photos to tell the truth and influence us on what really happened during the war (Encyclopedia, Britannica).

President Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardener

The Scaffold during the War captured by Alexander Gardener

Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady was no doubt one of the big icons in the American photography history. Such history of success was built step by step and by Brady himself starting in 1830 when he got in touch with William Page and through Page he met Samuel Morse who showed him the recent and wonderful results of “daguerreotype”.   Brady got fascinated for such technique and began to put into practice everything he learned. Different to most of his contemporaries who were men of little talent, Brady soon stood out and succeeded, always trying to improve in the exhibition of the native things, through constant reading and consults (Encyclopedia, Britannica). Brady was not only characterized by mastery of detail but, always tried to improve his work. One of his first steps on his journey was to photograph the maximum number of important people in that time. In this new direction, he participated in a completion of big promotion in the country and since then was recognized as the “Photographer of Notables”. He has photographed many American presidents with only one exception, Brady has recorded and released a photograph of each one, even being considered “Abraham Lincoln’s favourite photographer” (Morgan, Keya).

Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Brady

The prestige of Brady became even greater when in a trip to London he discovered new techniques and met new photographers who showed him the wet paper technique. He also received one the three awards of a world competition for photographers.

He started to put into practice everything he learned in London and more importantly that he brought with him Alexander Gardner with whom he achieved a new development “Imperial Photography”. In 1858, Brady had his own brand gallery and his name was all over the Country.

However, the peak of his career happened during the Civil War in the USA when he grouped 20 photographers (including Alexander and James Gardner) and then together they photographed “the rough-and-ready life of the road and camp”. Thus, the life of the war American was going though was highly publicized and recorded by Brady and his team. One of the biggest masterpieces of his career was “The photographic History of the Civil War”. In those pictures we see the daily routine of those people who were fighting in the war as well as the normal people. That was also a good tool to promote American army forces in a way they were doing a good job for their people.  Many of the members of the American Army were photographed and also the places the War took place. The returns of the “War Photography” investment weren’t enough as Brady and his photography team invested a lot of money. The big recession which took place in USA made Brady loose all his money and his prestige (Photo Seminars).

Portraits of the War by Mathew Brady

Robert Capa

Born at Andrei Friedman, Budapest in 1913, Robert Capa was a war photographer who used his camera to clearly expose the accurate face of war that overwhelmed so many in this era (Magnum Photos). Wars in that time took place on battle fields and Capa joined the soldiers through combat and kept his camera shooting. War photographers that came before Capa also were witness to what took place on the battle field, but what those photographers showed and how they displayed the visage of war, was a far cry from Capa’s perspective.  Photographs while advancing were still more powerful than first realized, and would become a heavy player in how civilians would view war as well as how much they would support it.  Capa photographed five wars and the First Indochina War, World War II, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the Second Sino-Japanese War Spanish Civil War. Capa brought to the world’s door step the horrifying scenes that frequented the battlefield.  There were no sentimental images of soldiers’ comradely or men handsomely posing in uniforms with their rifles amidst a still picturesque horizon, as were the norm before Capa.  Instead, using the photographic technology of his era, Capa shot famous images on the frontline such as this one during the Spanish Civil War, for Life magazine titled “Falling Soldier” taken in Spain at the moment the soldier was shot in the head (In Love & War).  


Robert Capa was a supporter of freelance photography and is famously quoted for saying “If your pictures are not good enough, you’re not close enough.”  Robert Capa will be remembered for many generations as being a more honest purveyor of truth, holding up a mirror rather than a less threatening contrived image of war. True, Capa was close to the frontlines but, was more a leader bringing photo journalism much closer towards the truth. “He was a life-long pacifist who wore military uniforms, rode in tanks, jumped out of planes, dodged bullets and marched in the front lines in order to get a shot” (PBS).

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Fallen Soldier photographed by Robert Capa

All photographed by Robert Capa during the War

When we compare and contrast all these great photographers of the history, they all have been commonly involved with war photography. They had also shot photos of famous people of their times including Abraham Lincoln and the photos of the British Royal Family. All four of the photographers used art in their photography to capture the war. When we compare the photography by Roger Fenton, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardener and Robert Capa, the differences that can be found are that Capa had captured shots of actions during the war. Whereas; Fenton, Brady and Gardener were more optimistic as they captured portraits of soldiers in uniforms and campsites during the war. Therefore, many of these photographers were not really considered in taking photos of the war as Capa has shot photos that made people feel the war more closely. There were conspiracies during the different periods of photography that didn’t allow many of these photographers to capture the actual scenes of the war. But, Capa had stepped down and managed to shot photos that truly depicted the war and its outcomes. Robert Capa has shown us the real sides of the war that other artist were not able to depict as Robert Capa had said," If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough." (Magnum Photos).