Analysis Of Field Where General Reynolds Fell By Timothy O Sullivan And Alexander Gardner

A heroic, glorified opportunity to fight for the success of a nation: the common romantic misconception with respect to the true realities of war shared by society. As a fairly new artistic medium during the Civil War, photography allowed for Timothy O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner to challenge the perception in which the public imagined acts of war by capturing an un-romanticized representation of the horrors of combat in their “Field Where General Reynolds Fell.” But, Gardner enlists artistic elements as well as a narrative caption to lessen the audience’s initial wave of shock by laying burial to the corpses that sacrificed their lives and stirring a sense of resurrection among them. “Field Where General Reynolds Fell,” figure 1, is a

He was responsible for setting up each shot, and William Frassanito deduces that Gardner may have even dragged bodies to their positions to draft “Field Where General Reynolds Fell” as well as other shots, so he could entice a certain reaction. Meanwhile, other artists physically captured the shots. In particular, credit goes to Timothy O’Sullivan for taking “Field Where General Reynolds Fell.” But, Gardner worked with other photographers, such as Matthew Brady, James F. Gibson, William Pywell, etc. As Gardner was responsible for composition, many of the photographs are characteristic or reflections of his personal beliefs. Alan Trachtenberg expresses that Gardner was widely known as a sympathizer for the Union during the Civil War. So, Gardner would often place dead Confederate soldiers in the light of an enemy and deserving of their death while Union soldiers are in an innocent, wronged position. Still, all his photographs display the result of human

It combines unconventional landscape and portraiture, memorializing the desolation of the Gettysburg battlefield in its entirety. On the horizon line, there is decimation of fences that lay in stacks, reminiscent of how people pile up garbage for pick up. Natural elements are almost nonexistent, with the exception of two trees on the right and a single tree on the left that remain standing. What once was lush grass is now dried up, straw blankets for dirt. And, peering off into the distance, people can not see past the layers of hay-like footing, which invokes a picture that whatever exists in this plane is all that battle leaves in its’ wake. Furthermore, a dead environment is a common theme in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. For example, “A Harvest of Death” exhibits a similar barren covering, containing trees with naked twigs for branches; the lack of nature continues for as far as the picture plane takes the eye. Destruction of the environment signifies total obliteration during wartime, and it establishes that the horrors of battle have relinquished these bodies to ruin along with