On Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War (Volume 1)

Defining Moments in Photography

by Anthony W. Lee, Elizabeth Young

Soon after Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book was published, in 1866, it became the Civil War's best-known visual record and helped define how viewers, then and in subsequent generations, would come to know the war. Gardner's classic also became foundational in the history of American photography, combining, for the first time, words and images in a sophisticated and moving account. This book, written by the art historian Anthony W. Lee and the literary scholar Elizabeth Young, interprets the story of the war as told by Gardner, unraveling his careful choice of words and images and the complicated play between them, and understanding them against the backdrop of the literary and photographic cultures of the American antebellum and Reconstruction eras. This book presents a unique study of a pivotal American historical document, approaching it from the perspective of visual studies as well as American literature and history.

Genres: Art History, Academic

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mary Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was assigned by my Professor to guide us through an understanding of Photography in the civil war through the lens of Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. And, I suppose, it does that. However, everything that the two parts of the books suggests (to me, anyway) is that Gardner was not a typical photographer of the Civil War. This isn't the author's fault, it's merely that this book wasn't what I was expecting, and that the scholarship failed to really make me invested in Gardner's work as important to the Civil War. He just seems superfluous to me. Ah well.