Mathew Brady\'s Photography and Its Role in Creating the American Empire

Matthew Brady's Photography And Its Role In American Empire

Matthew Brady was the famous photographer in the American history that played an important role in creating American empire. He not only made innovation in the field of photography but also made portraits of the important celebrities. His contribution in capturing the images of Civil War is another contribution that makes him memorable photographer of the history. His photographs are the only valuable source of information for both historians and the common people for knowing the story of Civil War and remembering the sacrifices made by the soldiers.

Matthew Brady is remembered as one of the most celebrated photographers of 19th century in the history of America. He is famous for his portrait work of celebrities and his contribution towards the American Civil War. His countless efforts and hard work has given him a title of the father of photojournalism (James, 1968).

His studio located at 350 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W was one of Washington's elite. His assistants usually operated by the cameras but at times he also played his role in arranging the pose of the portrait. Brady lived most of his life in hotels but never travelled towards West Virginia. He wrote very few letters and gave limited interviews for newspapers. Even then he is no doubt a very important and famous celebrity among the early photographers of America. He had a very friendly, little bland, simple and smiling personality but the photographs that he gave to his nation before and during the civil war shows his personality of a zealous and adoring artist (Panzer, 2001).

Matthew Brady was born in the city of New York in 1823 near Lake George in a house of an Irish immigrant. Matthew Brady had a unique appearance. He was an Irishman with a big nose, bushy hair style and pointed beard (Wilson, 2013). Unfortunately, his eyesight was very weak by birth; once he also told one of his friends "I felt a craving for light" (James, 1968, p. 4).

Brady during his late teens became familiar with the three old visionary hustlers of America; Barnum, Stewart and Samuel (Smith, 2009). P.T. Barnum was a showman, Samuel F.B. Morse was an artist as well as an inventor and A.T .Stewart was the merchant prince. Stewart is famous for Marble Palace which was the first department store of America. These three figures who became his close friends and self-promoted him. Brady stepped in very popular business of making cases for surgical instruments storage and boxes for daguerreotypes (Crain, 2013). It was the same time when he started producing and selling daguerreotypes. His name was also listed in 1843's New York Doggett's directory as a jewelry cases manufacturer. He was expert in making the miniature boxes with embossed tops.

This was the same period when the concept of commercial photography started in the city and American Institute of Photography was established. Brady quickly windup his businesses and started concentrated on his idea of photographing and publishing the pictures of unique Americans and business boomed people. He opened his studio after few years in 1844. However, by this time already several well established studios in the city that were loved by the public due to the facility of cheap portraits facility. These included "sun drawings," "sun pictures" and other names that were given to the photography in those times.

These photographs attracted the common people to visit Brady' studio, have a look at the latest photographs of celebrities and also get a portrait of them. Brady worked with ivory and porcelain, light diffusion process and different tinting exposures. There was a tough competition in the business so everyone wanted to produce something unique in order to attract customers. The newly established industry of photography held contests every year and Brady was lucky to win medals each year from 1844 to 1850. He became famous as "Brady of Broadway" and was awarded first gold medal in 1849 for the picture that he took using the daguerreotype process.

The 1850s were the great time in the life of Matthew Brady as he continued taking photographs of famous people in this decade and also became recognized on an international level. His portrait work was published in The Gallery of Illustrious Americans in 1850. These only twelve images were a success for Brady but unfortunately a financial failure. However, it did not affected Brady's reputation as he was already very famous and his success was not based on any appraisal (Hood, 1967).

Brady also availed the opportunity of attracting the public for portraits and he remained a successful and unmatched photographer for two decades. Wilson points out "Brady helped invent the modern idea of celebrity" (2013, p. 3). Brady had a mastermind; he not only improved the techniques of making photography but he also used contrast and light in portraits. The portraits made by him were authentic, liked by people and captured in such a way that no one else could do.

Brady and his team usually worked late night in the studio to fulfill the high demand for portraits. Brady was the supervisor of his team and spent long hours with them in making prints and staring into the lenses. Brady always entertained his customers with Irish stories and also arranged reproductions of certain photographs while his team of operators made the exposures. People had so much trust his team that they expected a high quality portraits if anyone from Brady's team takes their picture. This was Brady's administrative knowledge of successfully running the business that placed Brady above other photographers at the time of getting approval for photography at war (Hood, 1967)..

Brady participated in a world's fair held in London from 1850-1851. He sent his plates to London and also went himself where he swept the field. Winning an award was nothing new for Brady as he was the prince of photographers; he had won many awards only after opening his first gallery in 1844. He also went to England, representing himself at the chief portraitist of America where he was awarded as the premier photographer of the world.

In February 1860, a lawyer was running his campaign for the presidency in New York. Brady took the opportunity to make the portrait of candidate Abraham Lincoln. He was the first president who used photography for political purpose and running his first presidential campaign in 1860. It was an opportunity for Matthew Brady; he created around thirty five portraits of candidate "Abraham Lincoln" which were distributed in all parts of the country. (Roy, 1982).

These photographs played an important role in creating intimacy between the candidate and the voter which was not possible to achieve with only few painted portraits. Lincoln also gave credit to Brady and agreed that Brady's portraits played an important role in promoting him. He stated in his address at the Copper Union that Brady and Cooper Union made him the President of United States. Brady not only recorded history by taking Abraham Lincoln's portrait but also contributed in shaping it. The South spilt and Civil War started after the Lincoln's elections. Brady is therefore considered as photographic historian of America as his self imposed position was carried over into the biggest conflict of those times (Sullivan, 2004).

The elections at the time of Lincoln and the Civil motivated many photographers to capture the dramatic times by taking photographs and filming. Brady ran successful portrait studios in Washington and New York when he planned to shoot at the Civil War (Hood, 1967). Brady's mentor approached the secretary of war and took permission to allow them to work on the project of photograph events. Unfortunately he did not get approval for this project and then Brady himself took the initiative. He got presidential clearance to take photographs of looming crises.

Matthew Brady was one of the first photographers to take his camera into the field. This photo shows him shortly after his return from the First Battle of Bull Run, where he came under fire and had his wagon overturned. In order to fulfill his dream of photographing the Civil War, Brady took the loan on his New York gallery. He was confident that photography during the war period will be very useful as well as valuable (Cobb, 1956).

Nineteenth-century photographers needed dark spaces to prepare their plates, and they also had to develop the pictures immediately when they were taken. This made taking pictures in the field difficult, because the photographer had to find a way to take his darkroom along with him. Brady found a solution by turning covered wagons into portable darkrooms. He used the cramped space in the back to perform the chemical work necessary to take and develop pictures.

Matthew Brady took permission to travel with the troops at the time of civil war using his political connections. He and his staff took many photographs during the war which were published under his company Brady and Co. The photographs taken by Brady and Co rarely showed the actual battles; because it was very difficult to capture the actions with heavy camera equipments with slow exposures. Therefore, Brady and his team focused on taking portraits of the military, camps and scenes after the fight (Foresta, 1996).

This way Brady played an important role in capturing the life presented before him at the time of civil war that started in 1861 (Hood, 1967).. In earlier times, the only source of information for people of America during the war was the newspaper and paintings that were made to show pictures of war. However, there is a big difference between reading a description in the newspaper and looking at a photograph of the battle ground where loved ones are lying dead.

Taking photographs at the time of war was a very good opportunity for Brady to explore and show his potential to the public. He was the first person to realize the importance of photography in the life of Americans. Before his work during the Civil war, photography was only considered as a medium to capture images of the powerful and rich people. Brady exposed it as a tool to communicate a cause to people.

However, it was not an easy task. When following the armies, photographers shared many of the same hardships as the troops. They stayed in tents or simple huts, like this photographer's simple home away from home at Petersburg, Virginia. The desire of Brady's team to produce the most realistic images made it possible for them to accomplish this task. After years of war, once Brady said in an interview that he felt that he had to do so he did.

Several photographs were taken by Brady and his team during the Civil War. This group of experts brought the American Civil war from battlefield to the homes of the people. In addition, their photographs were also an asset for the future generations to know and feel the horrible glories. It was the first time when the images of war were captured in a journalistic sense (Hood, 1967). Some of the photographers had taken some images of Crimean and Mexican wars earlier and made few daguerreotypes but their little work could not be compared with the Brady's performance. Brady and his team were able to get a comprehensive and perceptive collection of around 7000 photographs of the Civil War, which was a big achievement (Taft, 1896).

Brady did not have any official connections with the army but he trained a team of twenty teams consisting of three hundred assistants for taking photographs at the war. Some of these assistants became famous photographers after working under the guidance of Brady. Brady placed these assistants at different geographical locations of the war. He provided them training to carefully take photographs of the battlefield by following the soldiers. Brady's friends were not happy with his idea of shooting at war and made him aware of the possible terrible consequences but Brady wanted to do it at any costs (Hood, 1967).

Brady spent a lot of money in training his teams by sending them at theatres with cameras to capture the pictures of important personalities who fought battles. If Brady had not done this effort then it was impossible for him to capture these moments due to his failing eyesight. During the war period, Brady was busy taking portraits at his studio and also participated in the London competition of 1862.

Brady along with his team photographed the battlefields, glories and horrors of war for four years. The photographs also included images of the camps, weapons used and soldiers. Moreover, Brady also focused on making portraits of the senior Union officers during the war. They were able to get thousands of photographs. All of these were obviously not shoot by Brady but, he played an active role of project manager was supervised his team and preserved the negatives. Brady enjoyed his experience of photographing the war when he was very near to the end of his life . He took his camera to the first Bull Run where his carrier was also caught in fire and he nearly lost his life. Brady "seized with mathematical accuracy, and artistic skill, scenes that will be historical (Harper's Weekly, 1863, p. 722).