Photography and the American Civil War

Wednesday, I finally got a chance to see the show Photography and the American Civil War at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, thru September 2, 2013. Great show if you have a chance to see it. Many photographs I hadn't seen before, and many of the usual suspects. There were several with trees playing prominent roles in the compositions. One I hadn't seen before was a two piece panorama by Mathew Brady.

A Lone Grave on Battle-Field of Antietam, by Alexander Gardner 1862

I was surprised they did not display a copy of A Lone Grave on Battle-Field of Antietam, by Alexander Gardner. This is one of the most iconic images of the Civil War, and a rather different sort of image than the rest on display. It shows a lone barren tree, on a scorched earth hill top. All of the images in the show that showed part of the landscape were lush with foliage. This particular copy is of the smaller format Brady's Album Gallery, and is No. 570 in the series.