Mathew Brady

Analyze Mathew Brady’s photography? Please help!?

I need five points of interest in his art.

Also, I could use some help with his historical context and style.

Mathew Brady was a master photographer, and is responsible for most of the photographs made during the Civil War. The photograph to your right of Robert E. Lee was made in Richmond, Virginia just one week after Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee wore the same new uniform he had worn for his meeting with Grant. Lee was reluctant to pose for the photographs, but Brady had known the General since the Mexican War, and, with the co-operation of Mrs. Lee convinced Lee to have the now famous portrait made. Photograph of Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady as a Young Man. Photo taken upon his return from the Battle of Bull Run (1861)

Brady took six photos, five of which survived. This standing pose is considered the best made that day, capturing the solemn character of the man who has gone down in history as perhaps the greatest military leader of all time. The camera captures the tense strain of war still weighing heavy on Lee.

Roy Merideth, one of the leading experts on the photographs of Lee has remarked, “His bearing is closely controlled, his gaze is sharply direct, but his eyes are shadowed with suffering.”

Perhaps no other photographer of the time of since could have captured this poignant image.

Mathew Brady arrived in New York City at the age of sixteen. Soon after taking a job as a department store clerk, he started his own small business manufacturing jewelry cases. In his spare time, Brady studied photography under a number of teachers, including Samuel F. B. Morse, the man who had recently introduced photography to America. Brady quickly discovered a natural gift. By 1844, he had his own photography studio in New York.

Brady soon acquired a reputation as one of America’s greatest photographers — producer of portraits of the famous. In 1856, he opened a studio in Washington, D.C., the better to photograph the nation’s leaders and foreign dignitaries. As he himself said, “From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the faces of its historic men and mothers.” He became one of the first photographers to use photography to chronicle national history.

Mathew Brady Biography

Mathew Brady Photograph of Robert E. Lee Taken just days after the end of the Civil War

Photograph of Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady as a Young Man. Photo taken upon his return from the Battle of Bull Run (1861)

Roy Merideth, one of the leading experts on the photographs of Lee has remarked, “His bearing is closely controlled, his gaze is sharply direct, but his eyes are shadowed with suffering.”

Perhaps no other photographer of the time of since could have captured this poignant image.

Mathew Brady Equipment

Mathew Brady Photo Crew outside Petersburg, Virginia circa 1864

At the peak of his success as a portrait photographer, Brady turned his attention to the Civil War. Planning to document the war on a grand scale, he organized a corps of photographers to follow the troops in the field. Friends tried to discourage him, citing battlefield dangers and financial risks, but Brady persisted. He later said, “I had to