Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War
Starred Review. Grade 6 Up–Armstrong chronicles the Civil War from Lincoln's election to his death with both a storylike narrative of events and a photo-essay. Unlike the war images we see today, Brady's pictures were either posed or they were of still objects. Since exposure in the brightest daylight in the 1860s took up to 10 seconds, even the slightest movement resulted in blurred images. Readers see soldiers, military camps, civilians, farms, battlefields: these same pictures were the first visual representations of war for America's nonmilitary folks. This book is also a look at early photographic techniques and offers a description of Brady's rare collection. The section titles use early photography terminology, referencing the series of steps that the photographer would have followed. All images are greyscale and by today's standards, the pictures are fuzzy and clouded with indistinct lines; when readers remember that the pictures are more than 100 years old, they should recognize their exquisiteness, grandeur, and genius.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH