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PHOTOGRAPHER · 1822–1896 · UNITED STATES

Mathew Brady

Studio portraiture and organised battlefield coverage on an industrial scale.

Born
1822
Died
1896
Country
United States
Field
Photographer
Mathew Brady
Portrait: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress); derivative work by Diego pmc, Public domain

KNOWN FOR

  1. 1860Abraham Lincoln (Cooper Union portrait)
  2. 1865Robert E. Lee after the surrender (Richmond)

WHY THEY MATTER

One of the most famous early American photographers; thousands of his studio's Civil War photographs are held by the National Archives and the Library of Congress.

THE LIFE

Brady studied under Samuel Morse and opened his New York studio in 1844, photographing presidents including Abraham Lincoln. When the Civil War began he sent teams with mobile darkrooms to the front, including Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan. His gallery show The Dead of Antietam brought pictures of corpses before a public that had never seen war this way. Many of the pictures credited to him were made by his assistants.

Source: Wikipedia

Also born in Before 1850

Nadar

1820–1910 · France · Photographer

Nadar

Plain-backdrop studio portraits that let a face carry the whole picture.

Sarah Bernhardt, 1864Source: Wikipedia

Carleton Watkins

1829–1916 · United States · Photographer

Carleton Watkins

Mammoth-plate landscapes of the American West, vast and precise.

Yosemite (mammoth-plate series), 1861Source: Wikipedia