The Imaginary Realism of the First War Photographs

Abstract

The photo like a technique image having the illusion for nothing could interfere with the camera and the object photographed. Presented reflections of authors such as Susan Sontag about photographic look and whats sensations offered by the images of war on society involved in conflicts. The study goes back to the first armed conflict has been documented in photos that seen: the Crimean War. Pioneers of war photography are named, such as Roger Fenton, Karl von Szathmari Baptist, Gilbert Elliott and Richard Nicklin. Particularly Fenton, sponsored by the British Crown, was crucial in the intuit to calm the public opinion about the conflict. Already, in American Civil War, the telegraph becomes essential for conflict´s development. In a time, the images of this war shocked the society by exposing bodies on the battlefield, but at the same time were considered true, or, by words of the photographer Mathew Brady, the eye of history.