  Detail! Every stick, every twig can be clearly viewed in the picture of The Wilderness where a terrible battle took place. Sharp, brutal detail of the dead Confederate soldier in the trench at Petersburg. Remember, this was the first time anyone had viewed a photo of a real, dead soldier. We are exposed to television and motion pictures now, but these pictures were shocking. It was no wonder the bound books did not sell well after the war. Also in the "dead soldier" photo remember that photographers often improved their photos, it took a long time to set up a camera. There is a suspicious gingham cloth underneath the body. The Civil War camera and lens offered a highly developed technology capable of making razor sharp images, the detail was always in these plate, it took modern photo printing to bring it out. (click photo for full sized images) |