War photography

With the invention of photography in the 1830s, the possibility of capturing the events of war to enhance public awareness was first explored. Although ideally photographers would have liked to accurately record the rapid action of combat, the technical insufficiency of early photographic equipment in recording movement made this impossible. The daguerreotype, an early form of photography that generated a single image using a silver-coated copper plate, took a very long time for the image to develop and could not be processed immediately.

Since early photographers were not able to create images of moving subjects, they recorded more sedentary aspects of war, such as fortifications, soldiers, and land before and after battle along with the re-creation of action scenes. Similar to battle photography, portrait images of soldiers were also often staged. In order to produce a photograph, the subject had to be perfectly still for a matter of minutes, so they were posed to be comfortable and minimize movement.

The Mexican-American War was the first one to be captured by a camera.^[1] A number of daguerreotypes were taken of the occupation of Saltillo during the Mexican–American War, in 1847 by an unknown photographer, although not for the purpose of journalism.^[2][3] The photographs do not show the wounded, dead bodies, nor live combat zones, with no glorification of warfare being evident.^[1] What they do show are portraits of military men, landscapes, street scenes, and post-battle burial grounds.^[1]

John McCosh , cirujano del Ejército de Bengala , es considerado por algunos historiadores como el primer fotógrafo de guerra conocido por su nombre. ^{[ 4 ] [ 5 ]} Realizó una serie de fotografías que documentan la Segunda Guerra Anglo-Sikh de 1848 a 1849. Estas consistían en retratos de compañeros oficiales, figuras clave de las campañas, ^{[ 4 ]} administradores y sus esposas e hijas, incluyendo a Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew , ^{[ 6 ] : 911} Hugh Gough, 1er vizconde Gough ; el comandante británico, el general Sir Charles James Napier ; y Dewan Mulraj , el gobernador de Multan . ^{[ 7 ] [ 8 ]} También fotografió a la gente local y la arquitectura, ^{[ 8 ]} emplazamientos de artillería y las consecuencias destructivas. ^{[ 6 ]} Posteriormente, McCosh fotografió la Segunda Guerra Anglo-Birmana (1852-53), donde fotografió a colegas, armas capturadas, la arquitectura de los templos en Yangon y al pueblo birmano. ^{[ 4 ]}

El húngaro - rumano Károly Szathmáry Papp tomó fotografías de varios oficiales en 1853 y de escenas de guerra cerca de Olteniţa y Silistra en 1854, durante la Guerra de Crimea . Ofreció personalmente unos 200 álbumes de fotos a Napoleón III de Francia y a la reina Victoria del Reino Unido en 1855. ^{[ 9 ]}

Stefano Lecchi, entre 1849 y 1859, tomó fotografías de los lugares de batalla de la República Romana utilizando el proceso de calotipo . ^{[ 10 ]}

Los primeros intentos oficiales de fotografía de guerra fueron realizados por el gobierno británico al comienzo de la Guerra de Crimea . En marzo de 1854, Gilbert Elliott recibió el encargo de fotografiar las fortificaciones rusas a lo largo de la costa del Mar Báltico . ^{[ 11 ]} Roger Fenton fue el primer fotógrafo de guerra oficial y el primero en intentar una cobertura sistemática de la guerra para beneficio del público. ^{[ 6 ] [ 12 ]}

Contratado por Thomas Agnew , desembarcó en Balaclava en 1854. Sus fotografías probablemente tenían como objetivo contrarrestar la aversión general del pueblo británico a la impopularidad de la guerra y contrarrestar los reportajes ocasionalmente críticos del corresponsal William Howard Russell de The Times . ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]} Las fotos se convirtieron en grabados en madera y se publicaron en The Illustrated London News .

Debido al tamaño y la complejidad de su equipo fotográfico, Fenton tenía limitaciones a la hora de elegir sus motivos. Dado que el material fotográfico de su época requería largas exposiciones, solo podía fotografiar objetos estáticos, principalmente retratos posados, y evitaba retratar a soldados muertos, heridos o mutilados.

Fenton también fotografió el paisaje  ; su imagen más famosa fue la de la zona cercana al lugar donde tuvo lugar la Carga de la Brigada Ligera . En cartas a sus familias, los soldados habían llamado al valle original «El Valle de la Muerte» , así que cuando en septiembre de 1855 Thomas Agnew expuso el cuadro como parte de una serie de once titulados « Panorama de la Meseta de Sebastopol en Once Partes» en una exposición en Londres, tomó el epíteto de las tropas, lo amplió como «El Valle de la Sombra de la Muerte» y se lo asignó a la obra. ^{[ 15 ] [ 16 ]}

Fenton abandonó Crimea en 1855 y fue reemplazado por la sociedad formada por James Robertson y Felice Beato . A diferencia de la representación de Fenton de los aspectos dignos de la guerra, Beato y Robertson mostraron la destrucción. ^{[ 17 ]} Fotografiaron la caída de Sebastopol en septiembre de 1855, produciendo alrededor de 60 imágenes. ^{[ 18 ]}

En febrero de 1858, llegaron a Calcuta para documentar las consecuencias de la Rebelión India de 1857. [ ^{19 ] Durante} este tiempo, produjeron posiblemente las primeras imágenes fotográficas de cadáveres. ^{[ 20 ]} Se cree que, al menos para una de las fotografías tomadas en el palacio de Sikandar Bagh en Lucknow , los restos óseos de los rebeldes indios fueron desenterrados o reubicados para aumentar el impacto dramático de la fotografía.

In 1860 Beato left the partnership and documented the progress of the Anglo-French campaign during the Second Opium War. Teaming up with Charles Wirgman, a correspondent for The Illustrated London News, he accompanied the attack force travelling north to the Taku Forts. Beato's photographs of the Second Opium War were the first to document a military campaign as it unfolded, doing so through a sequence of dated and related images.^[21] His photographs of the Taku Forts formed a narrative recreation of the battle, showing the approach to the forts, the effects of bombardments on the exterior walls and fortifications, and finally the devastation within the forts, including the bodies of dead Chinese soldiers.^[21]

During the American Civil War, Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner began recreating scenes of battle in order to overcome the limitations of early photography with regard to the recording of moving objects. Despite instantaneous photography being commercially available, most photographers took older cameras in the field as they had less delicate components, and so had to forfeit the ability to capture motion. Their reconfigured scenes were designed to intensify the visual and emotional effects of battle.^[22]

Gardner and Brady rearranged bodies of dead soldiers during the Civil War in order to create a clear picture of the atrocities associated with battle.^[23] In Soldiers on the Battlefield, Brady produced a controversial tableau of the dead within a desolate landscape. This work, along with Alexander Gardner's 1863 work, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, were images which, when shown to the public, brought home the horrific reality of war.^[24]

Also during the Civil War, George S. Cook captured what is likely and sometimes believed to be the world's first photographs of actual combat, during the Union bombardment of Confederate fortifications near Charleston – his wet-plate photographs taken under fire show explosions and Union ships firing at southern positions September 8, 1863.^[25] By coincidence, northern photographers Haas and Peale made a photographic plate of USS New Ironsides in combat September 7, 1863.

The first South American war to be photographed was the Paraguayan War of 1865–1870. In June 1866, the Montevideo firm of Bate y Compañía commissioned Uruguayan photographer Javier López to travel to the field of battle.^[26]

López used the wet-plate collodion process, making and developing his plates in a portable darkroom. The plates were sensitive to blue light only; his darkroom was an orange tent. This was the first time photography had covered South American warfare and his images became iconic.^[27] The firm did send a photographer to cover the Siege of Paysandú the year before, but he arrived after the fighting was over. He captured images of the ruined town and corpses in a street.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878–1880 was photographed by John Burke who traveled with the British forces. This was a commercial venture with the hope of selling albums of war photographs.

British war photographer Francis Gregson was attached to the Anglo-Egyptian troops under the command of Herbert Kitchener during the reconquest of the Sudan. Gregson is believed to have been the author of an album of 232 photographs called "Khartoum 1898", taken during the Anglo-Egyptian military campaign in Sudan from 1896 – 98. Documenting the advance of British troops and their victory over the Mahdist forces, he published not only numerous pictures of the Anglo-Egyptian troops and their officers, but also photographs of Anglo-Egyptian troops looting dead enemies and defeated Sudanese, like the commander at the Battle of Atbara, Emir Mahmoud.^[28][29]

World War I was one of the first conflicts during which cameras were small enough to be carried on one's person. Canadian soldier Jack Turner secretly and illegally brought a camera to the battlefront and made photographs.^[30]

In the 20th century, professional photographers covered all the major conflicts, and many were killed as a consequence, among which was Robert Capa, who covered the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the D-Day landings and the fall of Paris, and conflicts in the 1950s until his death by a landmine in Indochina in May 1954.^[31][32] Photojournalist Dickey Chapelle was killed by a landmine in Vietnam, in November 1965. The Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 was taken by photojournalist Joe Rosenthal.^[33]

Unlike paintings, which presented a single illustration of a specific event, photography offered the opportunity for an extensive amount of imagery to enter circulation. The proliferation of the photographic images allowed the public to be well informed in the discourses of war. The advent of mass-reproduced images of war were not only used to inform and propagandize the public, but they served as imprints of the time and as historical recordings.^[34]

Wartime censorship was widely practiced on all sides during both world wars. All photos had to undergo approval prior to publication, to avoid operational or technical secrets from falling into enemy hands.

Mass-produced images did have consequences. Besides informing the public, the glut of images in distribution over-saturated the market, allowing viewers to develop the ability to disregard the immediate value and historical importance of certain photographs.^[22] Despite this, photojournalists continue to cover conflicts around the world.

Journalists and photographers are protected by international conventions of armed warfare, but history shows that they are often considered targets by warring groups — sometimes to show hatred of their opponents and other times to prevent the facts shown in the photographs from being known. War photography has become more dangerous with the advent of terrorism in armed conflict as some terrorists target journalists and photographers. In the Iraq War, 36 photographers and camera operators were abducted or killed during the conflict from 2003 to 2009.^[35] Several were killed by US fire: two Iraqi journalists working for Reuters were notably strafed by a helicopter during the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, yielding a scandal when WikiLeaks published the video of the gun camera.^[36]U.S. Army combat photographer SpecialistHilda Clayton was killed when the mortar she was photographing accidentally exploded.^[37]

War photographers need not necessarily work near active fighting; instead they may document the aftermath of conflict. The German photographer Frauke Eigen created a photographic exhibition about war crimes in Kosovo which focused on the clothing and belongings of the victims of ethnic cleansing, rather than on their corpses.^[38] Eigen's photographs were taken during the exhumation of mass graves, and were later used as evidence by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.^[39]

• 
  Felice Beato
• 
  Roger Fenton
• 
  Alexander Gardner
• 
  Robert Capa
• 
  Joe Rosenthal
• 
  Andrii Dubchak
• 
  Ernest Brooks