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Veteran Photography
September 7, 2007
Six William Bell photographs of wounded Civil War solders are on view at SAAM.
Even cherished memorial traditions fade as new generations adopt new practices to memorialize the wars, deaths, and other public losses that they deem significant. For example, I had never heard of "buddy poppies," traditionally worn on Memorial Day to honor veterans, until my grandmother lamented their disappearance among younger generations. Photographic portraits of veterans are a proven entity in museums and, to my mind, photography memorializes soldiers and wars. But will these photographs always serve that function—and do they even now?
In a New York Times article on photographer Nina Berman, Holland Cotter writes about the niche she fits:
Ms. Berman adds no direct editorial comment to the presentation. She has said in interviews that she started photographing disabled veterans soon after the war began mainly because she didn’t see anyone else doing so. In what may be the most intensively photographed war in history, the visual documentation has been selective.
Cotter introduces a few questions. The ongoing war in Iraq might be the most intensively photographed war in history because this is an explosive era for photography—with digital cameras and Flickr and other applications opening up photography to new audiences and users. Yet, the number of photographers (professional and "citizen" included) who were picturing veterans was few. If the visual documentation is "selective," what are they selecting for?
Perhaps the Vietnam War, with its famous photographs of fleeing villagers and rooftop airlifts, changed popular expectations for wartime photography. Photographs of veterans aren't foremost among the famous photographs that survive the Vietnam War era. In any case, there is a qualitative difference between Civil War veteran portraits (some of which may be seen on SAAM's second floor) and photography from wars since. Berman's photographs show why these works are so valuable: Long after the political context fades, these works will serve as a reminder of the national consequence and sacrifice.
Turning the lens toward those older photographs, though, reveals that the reasons we appreciate them now diverge from the reasons they were originally commissioned. SAAM's veteran portraits "were specifically done to document the medical treatment for certain injuries, and were used for the education of the next generation of doctors," according to SAAM's head of publications, Theresa Slowik. "Most of the ones held by the National Library of Medicine are accompanied by text explaining the treatments." Berman's incredible "Marine Wedding" series is also accompanied by explanatory text.
- Civil War, William Bell, Photography, Veterans, Nina Berman, Vietnam War, Iraqi War,
American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Posted by Kriston on September 7, 2007 in American Art Elsewhere, American Art Here
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There are those of us who participate in the American culture who refuse to allow hallowed war memorial traditions to die and fade away.
I was born and raised in a small town in Mississippi named Columbus. Columbus was fortunate to have avoided being destroyed – primarily because it was a hospital town- during the War Between the States, although two thousand-plus dead Confederate soldiers from the Battle of Shiloh were brought to Columbus and buried at Friendship Cemetery.
In a now legendary story, a group of four Confederate women from Columbus held a Decoration Day ceremony on April 25, 1866, during which they placed flowers on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers who were buried at Friendship Cemetery. The poet Francis Miles Finch memorialized this act of kindness and post-war healing on the part of the women of Columbus in her famous poem, The Blue and the Grey.
Although many Southern states refused to participate in future Decoration Days (given the lingering hostility toward the Union and the fact that few Union soldiers were buried in Southern cemeteries), Columbus, Mississippi, was an exception. To this very day there is still a debate over whether the first Decoration Day took place in the North, or in Columbus, Mississippi. I am, of course, biased in favor of my home state’s claim to historical recognition for hosting the first Decoration Day.
At the time in 1866 the New York Times celebrated the selfless act of reconciliation that was demonstrated by the women of Columbus for decorating the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers. Many throughout the South, of course, were not so willing to forgive and move on from the terrible tragedies of the Civil War. During the course of the Civil War, Confederate widows in Columbus would place flowers on the graves of their departed husbands during each spring. In 1866, a Confederate lieutenant’s widow, Augusta Murdock Sykes, suggested to three other women that they also decorate the graves of the 32 Union soldiers that were buried at Friendship Cemetery, thus giving birth to the first Decoration Day. Mrs. Sykes argued that the Union dead were also the sons and husbands and brothers of mothers and wives and sisters.
I think it is important to recognize that they are many in this country who will do all they can to keep alive the memorials and traditions that honor our war dead from all wars in which Americans have fought and died. We have been doing so on the banks of the Tombigbee River in Columbus, Mississippi, since 1866. We will be doing so again in the spring of 2007.
The New York Times had an interesting article about the history of Decoration Day in Columbus, Mississippi.
You can read more about next year’s Decoration Day ceremonies at Friendship Cemetery, as well as the annual Columbus Pilgrimage Antebellum Home & Garden Tour at the Columbus Historic Foundation’s Web site.
Posted by: James W. Bailey | Sep 10, 2007
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