Alaxander Gardner

History of Photography

February 27, 2006

Alexander Gardner

Alexander was born in Glasgow Scotland. He was

working in a studio for the famous photographer

Matthew Brady when the Civil war broke out and he

wanted to start taking pictures of his own. Some of

the pictures were titled “Incidents of the War.” The

many casualties suffered during that war were being

documented but there was said to be no need for the

pictures. It was later said that we did need to have

these pictures and the photographers that had taken

them got compensated for their efforts. Alexander

Gardner took many of them, and he even has a book

of all the war pictures that him and ten others made

together, another thing that he is famous for are they

many pictures that he took of our former President

Abraham Lincoln, also known as “Honest Abe.”

He admired his honesty and the way he carried

himself. He always seemed to be in a state of peace

with his life and all that was going on around him.

Before Gardner started working with Matthew Brady he

had plans of moving to Virginia. He sent his wife,

mother, and other family members there but never made

it there himself. He reported to his family that he

was going to get rich by compiling this book of war

pictures and that they were going to have it made.

Little did he know that the book was going to be such

an unsuccessful one that he would actually end up

losing money from the idea. He was too embarrassed to

confront his family after that so he never did join

them in Virginia.

Gardner also took pictures of an execution that

took place. It was the execution of Henry Wirz the

Commandant of the Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

He also photographed Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, George

Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O’Laughlin, Edman

Spangler, and Samuel Arnold that they were arrested and

charged with plans of assassinating President Abraham

Lincoln. It seems like if it was something that had to

do with Abraham Lincoln Alexander Gardner was there

with his camera to capture the event.

What Gardner liked mostly about photography is

that it is something you can play around with until you

get the image you want to capture. For instance a

quote he once said was, “the camera cannot lie, but the

person behind the camera can.” He found it intriguing

that the camera could capture only the image that you

want it too. Pictures tell a story and you don’t have

to have the whole truth there to make a good photograph

of an event. To take some of the war pictures that he

took he himself actually moved the bodies to the

precise place that he wanted them to