Essay About Alaxander Gardner And Abraham Lincoln Alexander Gardner

Alaxander Gardner
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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