Matthew Brady and His Impact as an American Photographer - Term Paper Example

Jerry Ciacho May 2, Matthew Brady and His Impact as an American Photographer Matthew B. Brady, an eminent, well-known and celebrated photographer that produced numerous daguerreotypes and other forms of pictures and photographs, most especially of the American civil war in the 18oos, has greatly impacted and shaped the American society through the different photographs and pictures that he had produced. Matthew Brady is described as a man who stood five feet and six inches; a man with a moustache and a pointed beard who usually wore a hat with a broad brim and a linen duster topcoat. Brady is one among many of the most famous, prominent and popular. He is also considered to be one of America’s greatest photographers in his time, during the 19th century. Later on, he became and is currently known to be the father of photojournalism. Born on the eighteenth day of May in the year 1822 in Warren County in the state of New York to an Irish immigrant family, Matthew Brady grew up, later left his Irish immigrant parents and moved to the city of New York when he was only sixteen years of age. When he arrived in that city, he first took the profession of being a clerk in a department store. Soon after working in this job, he created and made his very own business industry in the making, manufacturing and creating cases for jewelry and other trinkets and charms. As a hobby and leisure pursuit, Brady had a great interest and loved to take photographs. He decided to study photography soon after. One of the teachers that he had was William Page. In the year 1839, Page had introduced Brady to Samuel F. B. Morse, who had been one of Page’s instructors and mentors in the art of pictures and was one of the first to ever introduce photography to the United States of America. At that time, Morse just came back from the continent of Europe, who has just begun to start the application of photography, which was still a new process during that time. During his classes as a student of photography, his incredible and exceptional talent and skill in photography was observed and noticed. He was able to quickly realize and find out about his natural ability and gift in taking daguerreotypes and photographs, mostly portraits of renowned Americans. Through Samuel Morse and William Page, he was able to become more and more interested and fascinated with the new art of photography. Because of his growing interest and love for photography and pictures, he later decided to save up his own money to have enough capital in order to create and own his very own photography studio so that he could follow his ambition and dream to rise and become one of America’s most popular and famous photographers. He continued to pursue this hobby and interest of his which later became an occupation and a lifetime job. It started when he created his very first studio in photography in New York by the year 1844 by renting a few rooms in the top floor of a building which was located in the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan. Inside his newly built photography studio, Matthew B. Brady was able to take and produce thousands of people’s pictures and portraits. This business venture and endeavor that he has just newly and undertook was going to be one of the first steps in his rise to fame and popularity throughout America. The year after that, he was able to put on display and exhibit his photographs of famous Americans at that time. Four years later in 1849, he made and opened another studio which was located in Washington, D.C. In this place, he was able to meet a girl named Juliet Handy, whom he would later marry in 1851. Through his unrelenting dedication, hard work and full time effort into his new craft at taking pictures and photographs, Brady was able to take more and more pictures that seemed to get better every time. Brady’s daguerreotypes or the photographs that were produced through the early process by using a plate coated with silver or light-sensitive silver and developed in a vapor of mercury, became increasingly popular and famous. He was given a couple of awards for his brilliant work and effort. He was one of the very first among the few people to be able to document and record archives and chronicles of America’s national history through the art of photography. By the middle of the 1800 in the year of 1850, Matthew Brady was able to publish a magazine which was called “The Gallery of Illustrious Americans.” Inside the magazine were numerous pictures and photographs of several important people in America. To name a few of the famous people in history that he photographed, some of the photographs that were displayed and shown in his magazine were of the portraits and pictures of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and the sixteenth president of the United States, president Abraham Lincoln. By the year 1856, Brady was also the first to create the very first modern advertisement when in the New York Herald paper, he placed and displayed the very first ad that offered and promoted the production of photographs, daguerreotypes, and ambrotypes. The advertisements that Brady made were the first to have fonts and typefaces that were distinctly separate and obviously different from the text used in the publication and from other advertisements that were created by others. His breakthrough and in his peak in fame and success occurred and happened when he turned and focused his photography topics and subjects to the American civil war which lasted for four years from 1861 to 1865. He decided and planned to document and record the civil war in a grand scale that would later make him distinguished and illustrious throughout the whole country of America. He decided to organize and coordinate with a group or unit of different photographers and picture takers, about twenty five of them that would constantly follow behind and tag along with the American troops in the field. A number of them includes Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, William Pywell, Thomas C. Roche, George N. Barnard and many more. Although his friends greatly discouraged him and tried to persuade and convince him not to push through with his risky plan by telling him about the different dangers and risks such as the various difficulties that he might face there such as the hazards and dangers that might occur in the battleground as well as the financial risks that are at issue, Brady did not listen. He believed that through this effort and endeavor, he would become even more famous and will become successful. So, Brady persisted and continued on with his adventurous yet dangerous plan and endeavor. He later said, “I had to go. A sprit in my feet said, ‘Go,’ and I went.” And indeed, he did. In reality, not all of the photographs and pictures that were credited to Matthew Brady were truly his own work of art. Some of the pictures and photographs that were credited to him were actually the pictures taken by some of the corps of different photographers that went along with Brady’s plan in the battleground and in the combat zone of the American civil war. What Brady did was take charge and supervise this organized group of about twenty five photographers, which were each given a darkroom as they travelled to take pictures of the war. He hardly ever visited the battlefield himself. One of the reasons for this could have been his failing and weakening eyesight that started in the 1850s. Some of the other photographs that were attributed to him were pictures that he bought from the photographers who had just recently and freshly come from the battlefield of the War Between the States. He did this in the attempt to make his collection of photographs from the civil war as comprehensible and clearly understood as possible. Although it was the work and the efforts that produced different photographs of many people, he was responsible for them and he was in charge of the group so all these pictures were credited as, “The Photography by Matthew Brady.” Brady and his group of photographers and picture takers took photographs of a few battles and wars; one of them including the First Battle of Bull Run in Fairfax County and in Prince William County located in Virginia and was fought on July 21, 1861. During this, Matthew Brady got lost for about three days and he wound up in Washington D.C. and almost died from starvation. By 1862, Brady surprised and shocked the people of the United States when he first displayed and showed the different photographs of the many dead bodies and the dead soldiers from the battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg in the battle day of September 17, 1862 which is located in the state of Maryland. This place was the very first location of the first major battlefield in the American civil war. The Battle of Antietam is considered to be and is recorded in America’s national history as the bloodiest battle in a single day, with over twenty three thousand casualties and deaths, including many Confederate soldiers and a couple of generals alike. The first time that these photographs were put on display and were exhibited in the gallery in New York, which was entitled as “The Dead of Antietam” was also the first time that the American public witnessed and saw the carnage, the destruction, the killing and the bloodshed brought about by the war. Brady spent about a hundred thousand dollars on his venture in taking pictures and doing photography of the American civil war. His spending in order to create about ten thousand plates only returned a small amount of money although the publication and the production of the ten volume work called, “The Photographic History of the Civil War” makes up a memorial of Matthew Brady and his amazing work of photography that has shaped and influenced the history of America. He did this by recording it through his photographs and pictures. Brady was also able to shape the media through his great impact and effect in the public media during those times. After the American civil war ended in 1865, Matthew Brady guessed and expected that the people would want to buy his photographs. He also predicted that the U.S. government would buy and purchase his thousands upon thousands of numerous photographs that were taken of the civil war, but things he had hoped for did not come true. People lost interest for his photographs and it did not sell as much as he expected it to. In addition to that, the U.S. government refused the purchase of his photographs and pictures. As a result of this, Brady had no choice and was forced to give up and sell his photography studio which was located in New York and he became bankrupt. After this incident, Matthew Brady desired and wanted to get more money from the photographs that were credited to him of the war and battle. He was given twenty five thousand dollars from the United States government. However, his reckless and imprudent spending on unnecessary and unimportant things plus the fact that he was still trapped intensely in debt almost made him broke. After this had happened, he continued his work in Washington, D.C. At first it was a success, but problems eventually came and it continued to come to him. His poor eyesight problem has become worse and was aggravated. In the year 1877, his wife Julia had died. This caused Brady to become depressed and so he heavily indulged in alcohol and drinking. So he was left all alone and in a terrible state and condition of loneliness and hardship. After other photographers had taken over his fame and popularity, Matthew Brady was never able to recuperate and regain back his fortune, reputation and esteem. The public people also lost interest in his work and his practice and recognition drastically declined. With a few months left to live, Brady lived under the roof of a cheap rooming house , sick, lonely and poor. Shortly before he finally passed away and died, when asked to comment about the thousands of photographs and pictures that he took and produced throughout the course of his entire life, Matthew Brady explained and said, “No one will ever know what I went through to secure those negatives. The world can never appreciate it. It changed the whole course of my life." Matthew Brady died at five o’ clock on January 15, 1896 impoverished, forgotten and lonely in the charity quarter of the Presbyterian Hospital in the city of New York, New York. He passed away from difficulties and complications regarding his health subsequent from a streetcar accident in the year 1896. His memorial service and funeral was paid for by the people who were formerly connected with the 7th New York Infantry. He was and is currently buried in Washington D.C. in the Congressional Cemetery. His business in photography was taken over by Levin Corbin Handy who is Matthew Brady’s nephew through marriage. Although Matthew Brady’s death was not exactly the way he wanted it to be, his legacy and impact in the American society, in the nation’s history and in the public media still remains to this very day after three centuries since his work and time in the practice of photography to record history and to shape the public media through his magazines, publications advertisement initiatives. Matthew B. Brady not only greatly impacted and influenced history and the public media; he was also able to photograph numerous and various important people of America that took their place in history as well. He pictured eighteen out of the nineteen presidents of the American presidents, including John Quincy Adams, William McKinley and even the current president during that time, Abraham Lincoln. He also photographed various and several senior officers of the Union in the American civil war such as Nathaniel Banks, James McPherson, David Dixon Porter, Lew Wallace, Emory Upton, Henry Warner Slocum, George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Don Carlos Buell, Benjamin Butler and so many more. On the 23rd day of February in 1861, then President Abraham Lincoln personally went to the photography studio in Pennsylvania Avenue to have photo for the inauguration taken. This exemplifies and illustrates just how popular and renowned Matthew Brady was during the peak of his success and fame all over America. Not just in one occasion, Brady was able to photograph Lincoln in many others. Not only that, Brady also photographed the portraits and the pictures of the Confederate side, including P. G. T. Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, James Henry Hammond, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and others. Perhaps one of, if not the greatest American photographer during the nineteenth century, Matthew B. Brady definitely achieved success and the fame. His name became great and it still remains to be great for his legacy and impact in the society and the history of America, and also the public media well. Throughout his life, he also produced a total number of over seven thousand pictures, six thousand of them from the American civil war. In fact, most of what is known today of the American civil war comes from the pictures and the photographs produced by Matthew Brady along with his photographers that went with him during the battle. Brady was not only hard working, persistent in what he loved and the craft that he had great interest in, he was also a man of great courage and enthusiasm. His attitude played a great role in making him who he was. Works Cited "Matthew Brady." Wikipedia. Wikimedia, Inc., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. New World Encyclopedia contributors. "Matthew Brady." New World Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. "Matthew Brady." Dickinson College. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. "About Mathew Brady." Son of the South. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. "Mathew B. Brady." Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources (Library of Congress). N.p., 22 Sept. 1997. Web. 2 May 2011. "About Mathew Brady." Mathew Brady. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. "Matthew Brady." Southern Illinois University Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2011. Read More