Look
at the photos of Fenton, Brady, Gardner and Capa, read about their work and try
to find/see similarities and differences and explain how and why is Capa
different than others.
Roger Fenton, Mathew Brady, Alexander Garner and
Robert Capa were the most known photographers or photojournalist of war, and
had various differences in the way they capture images and on whom or what to
capture.
Roger Fenton was the first one to document a war
through medium photography, his photos was mainly used by the governments
policy or propaganda. Most of his photographs are scenes of devastating effects
of the war. He used salt paper to print his images, and this is the reason why
he wasn't able to sell most of his photos, because it has the tendency to fade.
Mathew Brady was the father of photojournalism; he
was the first to undertake photography documentation of American civil war.
Most his photos are well known or the influential figures of the American war.
With the help of other twenty photographers they captured the photographic
history of the civil war.
Alexander Gardner works as a shadow of Brady during
the American civil war. Brady used his photos, which is why he wasn't famous
for his own photos. After being and assistant of Brady, Gardner made it up to
make a campaign picture of army Potomac. He was the first one to publish a
collection of civil war photographs called “Gardner’s photography sketch book
of the war”.
Robert Capa was known to be the greatest war
photographer of the world. His style of capturing image was different from Fenton,
Brady and Gardner because he literally joined the soldiers during the war; how
the dress, where they go, and what they do, every single thing the soldiers
does he was there to capture the greatest and worst events of the battle. The
risk he took on joining the battle to photograph paid him back as he became the
greatest photographer. He said “if your photographs aren’t good enough you’re
not close enough” and he stand on these words, he showed that making a good
photograph is capturing the finest scenes during the actual war. Like most of
his controversial picture “falling soldier” this captured a Spanish soldier to
the instant when a bullet drops him.
Robert Capa was different from other photographers
simply because he was the one who took risk on getting up close during the
actual battle to photograph. He died with sacrificing his own life to
photograph the greatest scene of the war. Capa on the other hand, was different
from the other war photography because he didn’t think of any danger he
captured soldiers battling in the war to show that it was the reality. He
became the powerful symbol of war by letting his life in great danger just to
capture the war and how the soldiers fight to save the country.
Similarities between these four photographers were
that they all took pictures about war. They captured the reality in war and
they all showed people the danger and fears in wars. In addition, they also shoot
photos of famous people of their times including Abraham Lincoln and the photos
of the British Royal Family. All four of them contributed not only to our
nation but in the history of photography.
Links:
