[My work] ...is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest." -Alexander Gardner |
Alexander GardnerAlexander Gardner was a member of Brady's corps. He took lots of great photos of the Civil War! Gardner met Brady after immigrating to America from Scotland. He moved to New York, where he started working for Brady. Originally, he specialized in Imperial Photography (really big photographic prints). This began to change as Brady's eyesight (which was never the best) began to get worse. As Brady's vision struggles increased, so did Gardner's responsibilities, until he was soon in charge of Brady's entire Gallery.
Gardner was known as one of the top photographers in his field during the times of the Civil War. He was appointed an honorary captain on General George McClellan's staff, which put him in the perfect position to photograph the aftermath of battles. He was the first man in Brady's corps to photograph corpses that had been strewn across battlefields. After the Civil War, Gardner took the last picture of Lincoln. It was taken five days before Lincoln's assassination. After this, he photographed the convicted men, as well as their executions. Brady started a gallery just for Gardner. In addition to running his own gallery, Alexander Gardner was named the official photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad. In the later days of his life, he quit photography to start an insurance company. |