Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter Essay Example

We must also look at the manner in which a photo is consumed in order to assign a particular meaning to the photo itself, which today may include sources such as Facebook, a newspaper such as the New York Times, or a PBS documentary as stated in lecture. Some key examples of how the representation and the source of consumption play a role in the truth of a photo are present in the Godeau reading, stating that “empty” spaces of Palestine and Egypt become important in showing progress of their empires, while images of indigenous cultures were viewed as another group to impose colonialism upon.

These ideas become very important during the Civil War when trying to explain how one portrays truth through photography and documenting through photography. In the example of Alexander Gardner’s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, you are given the sense from the photo that this man in the scene has been killed just where he lay, rifle perched against a rock, and his gaze directly at you. The dead man whom Gardner photographed was a Confederate infantrymen and so there starts the fabricated image that he produced. As stated in the text, Gardner and James Gibson arrived at the battle of Gettysburg on the 5th of July after the battle had ended days before. Both were Northerners and their photographic representations were directed to that narrative. Again from the text and the lecture, it is mentioned that Gardner stages this scene entirely, the musket in the photo was not a sharpshooter’s rifle, the man was moved to this position, and even the head of the man turned toward to camera for greater

effect. The staging of these photos, along with the text included created and provided and overview that favored the ideology of the northern Union soldiers. Much of this staging is similar to the F.S.A project in the Godeau reading. Stating that the photographers intentions of these photos were to gain sympathy or with the intention of getting the viewer to be invested in the image.

Ultimately, what Gardner seemed to accomplish in his photos was create an effect, to elicit a response from those that lived in the north during the Civil war. The text gives some insight into these feelings through text accompanying Gardner’s photos with messages such as, calling dead Confederate soldiers “devilish”, “those who have committed treason”. Leaving the viewers of these photos a document of the war, but one that had a specific narrative stemming from the photographers view points and biases.