Photography has shaped how societies understand, justify, and remember war more than written accounts or oral testimony. From the mid-nineteenth century to the digital age, war images have served as tools of state power, evidence of protest, and visual archives of trauma. This exhibition argues that war photography is historically significant not only for documenting conflict but for shaping how the public interprets nationalism, grief, accountability, and resistance. Rather than acting as a passive witness, photography has actively participated in constructing the cultural memory of war.
In the nineteenth century, photographers like Roger Fenton and Mathew Brady captured the aftermath of battles using wet collodion processes. Their images, often sanitized or staged, reinforced patriotic narratives and presented war as an honorable sacrifice rather than visible brutality. By the early twentieth century, the rise of portable cameras and mass publication transformed war photography into a vehicle of immediacy and influence. Robert Capa’s work, for instance, offered viewers a frontline visual experience that shaped political sentiment and public opinion.
In the postmodern and contemporary eras, war photography emphasizes trauma, circulation, propaganda, and civilian experience. Images like Nick Ut’s “Napalm Girl” challenged government narratives and intensified anti-war movements, while photographers such as James Nachtwey and Lynsey Addario documented conflict inside homes and refugee zones. Digital technologies now allow images to circulate globally in real time, shifting power over who controls the visual narrative of war.
Across periods, technologies, and ideologies, photography does not simply record conflict—it defines how societies see, remember, and emotionally process it.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
Photographer: Roger Fenton
Date: 1855
Medium/Process: Wet collodion negative on glass; printed as an albumen silver print
Dimensions: Approx. 36 × 42 cm (varies by print)
Location/Collection: Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin), Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Collection
Link: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/roger-fenton-crimean-war-photographs
This photograph was created using the wet collodion process—a complex mid-19th century technique requiring large glass plate negatives, portable darkroom tents, and long exposure times. Because exposure times were too slow to capture movement or live combat, photographers like Fenton focused on aftermath, landscapes, or staged environments. The technical limitations shaped not only the content but also the ideology of early war photography: calm over chaos, landscape over bodies.
The photograph shows a barren dirt road in a desolate valley, scattered with cannonballs left over from artillery fire in the Crimean War. There are no soldiers, dead bodies, or visible violence—only the debris of battle. The emptiness creates a haunting sense of what has occurred without depicting it directly. Some scholars (e.g., Susan Sontag) debate whether Fenton moved cannonballs onto the road to create a stronger composition, suggesting early staging practices in war imagery.
This image supports the exhibition theme by demonstrating how photography helped construct the memory and meaning of war rather than simply recording it. Themes include aftermath without bodies – emphasizing war’s residue while avoiding graphic content, Silence and erasure – violence is invisible but implied, nationalism and restraint – made for British audiences to support the war without shocking them, early propaganda – war is framed respectfully, not critically. Compared to later war photographs, which show human suffering directly, Fenton’s work reflects a more sanitized, state-approved vision of conflict.
This photo emerged during the Crimean War (1853–1856), one of the first major European conflicts to be photographed. Fenton was commissioned with implicit support from the British government and aristocracy. His goals included:
- Boosting public morale
- Avoiding images of death
- Creating “acceptable” representations of warfare
Victorian Britain preferred images that suggested discipline, empire, and order—not chaos or trauma. The absence of human suffering was not accidental but ideological.
Fenton, Roger. The Valley of the Shadow of Death. 1855. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/roger-fenton-crimean-war-photographs.
A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg
Photographer: Alexander Gardner
Date: July 1863
Medium/Process: Albumen silver print from wet collodion glass-plate negative
Dimensions: Typically, around 7 × 9 inches (varies by print)
Location/Collection: Library of Congress; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Archives
Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/edy00039/
The photograph was made using the wet collodion process, the dominant photographic method of the 1850s–1860s. This involved:
- Coating a glass plate with collodion and sensitizing it in silver nitrate
- Exposing it in a large-format camera while still wet
- Developing it immediately in a portable darkroom wagon
Because exposure times were long and the plates were delicate, photographers could not capture battle in action. They focused instead on the aftermath of violence—landscapes, dead soldiers, and destruction. The resulting albumen prints were contact printed from glass negatives, producing sharp detail and tonal depth.
The image shows a trench or shallow burial pit littered with soldiers’ bodies after the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The corpses lay in contorted positions with uniforms, equipment, and blankets still visible. In the background, a few soldiers and civilians stand or ride on horseback, possibly overseeing burial operations or surveying the scene. Rather than focusing on a single dramatic moment, the photograph documents mass death and the impersonal scale of war.
This work supports your exhibition’s argument about photography constructing how war is remembered:
- Death as evidence — Unlike earlier sanitized images (e.g., Fenton), this photo forces viewers to confront violence directly.
- Collective loss over individual heroism — The dead have no identities; the image speaks to national trauma rather than personal glory.
- Memory shaped by aftermath — Photography shifts war’s meaning from valor to devastation.
- Truth vs. decorum — This image contrasts with propaganda-driven or staged war photography.
It marks a pivotal moment when photography began challenging rather than supporting idealized narratives of war.
Taken just after the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), the photograph responded to growing public uncertainty about the war’s cost. Gardner and his team worked under Mathew Brady, distributing images through gallery showings and publications.
Key contextual points:
- Americans had never seen battlefield dead documented so directly.
- Urban audiences in the North were shocked when these images were displayed in exhibitions.
- The photograph contributed to a changing perception of war—from noble cause to national tragedy.
- It aligned with the emerging culture of mourning during and after the Civil War.
Unlike the Crimean War photographs, these images did not protect viewers from horror—they exposed it.
Gardner, Alexander. A Harvest of Death. July 1863. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.,
https://www.loc.gov/item/edy00039/.
The Falling Soldier (also known as Death of a Loyalist Militiaman)
Photographer: Robert Capa
Date: 1936
Medium/Process: Gelatin silver print from 35mm film (Leica camera)
Dimensions: Variable prints; originally shot on 24×36mm negative
Location/Collection: International Center of Photography; Magnum Photos Archive
Link: https://www.icp.org
Capa shot this image using a handheld 35mm Leica camera, which allowed unprecedented mobility compared to the large-format cameras of the nineteenth century. The use of 35mm film enabled photographers to get physically close to combat, capturing split-second action previously impossible to document. Unlike staged aftermaths or composed battlefield scenes, this camera technology allowed images to feel spontaneous, personal, and dangerous.
The photograph is black and white due to film limitations of the period, but the absence of color also contributes to the stark, immediate impact. The image captures the moment a Republican Loyalist soldier in the Spanish Civil War is allegedly struck by a bullet. His body recoils backward, knees collapsing, head thrown back, rifle slipping from his grasp. There is no enemy visible—just a lone figure losing balance on a barren hillside.
The subject is not war as strategy or landscape, but war as the instant of death. The solitary figure transforms combat from a collective cause to individual vulnerability. The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was a politically charged global event, attracting journalists, volunteers, and ideological supporters worldwide. Capa’s photograph was published in Vu and Life, becoming one of the most iconic war images of the 20th century. It humanized the conflict and symbolized the sacrifice of those resisting fascism.
Controversy surrounds the image: scholars have debated whether it was staged. That debate itself underscores your exhibition’s thesis—that war photography shapes memory and belief regardless of its absolute truth value.
This work reflects the modernist photojournalistic style emerging in the 1930s:
- Spontaneity and movement
- Focus on individual experience rather than sweeping landscapes
- Human drama over strategic documentation
- Use of smaller cameras for embedded coverage
It replaced static war images with dynamic, emotionally charged moments.
Capa, Robert. The Falling Soldier (Death of a Loyalist Militiaman). 1936. International Center of Photography, New York. Magnum Photos Archive.
The Terror of War (Napalm Girl)
Photographer: Nick Ut
Date: June 8, 1972
Medium/Process: Black-and-white film photography (35mm Leica camera)
Location: Trảng Bàng, South Vietnam
Collection: Associated Press Archives
Link: https://www.apimages.com (search “Napalm Girl” Nick Ut)
Nick Ut used a 35mm film camera, likely a Leica rangefinder, standard for photojournalists of the period. The use of black-and-white film, despite the availability of color photography by the early 1970s, allowed for faster development and global transmission via newswires. Film photography also lent the image a tone of immediacy and gravity that color sometimes softened. The ability to process and circulate the image rapidly through Associated Press networks made it one of the most widely seen photographs in the world.
The photograph depicts a group of Vietnamese children running down a rural road after a South Vietnamese napalm strike. At the center is nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, naked and screaming in pain as the napalm has burned her clothes off. U.S.-allied soldiers walk behind them, unable to help. Nearby, other children cry, stumble, or hold hands as they flee. The subject is not combat, but the civilian cost of war, especially its impact on children. Instead of glory or heroism, the image centers on suffering, confusion, and desperation.
Taken during the Vietnam War, the image emerged at a time when public support for U.S. involvement was sharply declining. Television and photography were transforming warfare into a form of mass media reality.
- The photo was published internationally in newspapers and magazines within 24 hours.
- It won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize and drastically shaped public opinion.
- It also challenged the belief that the United States was on the “right” side of the conflict.
Unlike 19th-century images of aftermath or sanitized heroism, this photograph forced viewers to confront the ethical implications of colonial and military intervention.
Ut, Nick. The Terror of War. 8 June 1972. Associated Press,
https://www.apimages.com/Collection/Landing/Nick-Ut-Napalm-Girl
Sniper’s Window, Sarajevo
Photographer: James Nachtwey
Date: 1993
Medium/Process: Black-and-white gelatin silver print (shot on 35mm film)
Dimensions: Typically printed at approx. 16 × 20 inches (varies by exhibition)
Location/Collection: TIME Magazine Archive; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Fotomuseum Winterthur
Link: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/conflict/james-nachtwey-war-photography-bosnia/
James Nachtwey shot this image using a 35mm film camera, most likely a Nikon or Canon SLR, standard for conflict photojournalism in the 1990s. The black-and-white film emphasizes contrast, texture, and mood while avoiding the distraction of color. Rapid shutter speeds allowed him to capture a tense, fleeting moment in real time. Unlike 19th-century wet collodion or formal documentation, Nachtwey’s tools enabled mobility, immediacy, and intimacy within an active warzone.
The photograph captures a man—likely a civilian or militia fighter—peering through a shattered window with a weapon during the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War (1992–1996). The setting is not a battlefield, but a ruined bedroom: peeling wallpaper, an unmade bed, debris, and broken blinds. The image blurs the line between civilian space and combat zone. Violence is not abstract or distant—the war has invaded the domestic interior.
This image reinforces your exhibit’s thesis about how war photography shapes memory and meaning through:
- Intimate proximity to conflict — the camera is inside the warzone, not observing from afar.
- Civilian entanglement — war is shown not as soldiers on front lines, but as survival in homes and urban spaces.
- Trauma and collapse of normalcy — family spaces become battlegrounds.
- Contemporary warfare — unlike earlier wars, the 1990s conflicts were deeply embedded in civilian life.
- Memory through ruin — the destruction of home represents the destruction of identity.
Thematically, this contrasts with sanitized 19th-century landscapes and mass-death imagery from the Civil War, tying into modern conflicts defined by urban sieges and ethnic violence. This image reflects late modern/postmodern war photography:
- Gritty realism
- Use of shadows and light to convey mood
- Emphasis on the environment as a narrative
- Focus on human cost rather than military spectacle
- Psychological tension over visual spectacle
Unlike Gardner or Fenton, Nachtwey captures war as experienced from within, not as a distant observer.
Nachtwey, James. Sniper’s Window, Sarajevo. 1993. TIME Magazine Archives,
https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/conflict/james-nachtwey-war-photography-bosnia/
Colonel Soleil’s Boys
Photographer: Richard Mosse
Series: Infra
Date: 2011
Medium/Process: Kodak Aerochrome infrared film, digitally scanned and printed
Dimensions: Often exhibited at large scale (e.g., 48 × 60 inches or larger)
Location/Collection: Jack Shainman Gallery; major museum exhibitions (e.g., ICA Boston, Pulitzer Arts Foundation)
Link: https://jackshainman.com/artists/richard-mosse
This photograph was created using Kodak Aerochrome, a discontinued military surveillance film originally developed during the Cold War to detect camouflage. The film captures infrared light and renders chlorophyll in vivid pinks and magentas. Mosse used a large-format camera, then digitally scanned and printed the images.
This choice of technology disrupts expectations of documentary photography and raises questions about how war is seen, interpreted, and aestheticized. Unlike traditional war photojournalism, Mosse uses experimental, non-neutral film stock to expose the invisible: both literal camouflage and the overlooked violence of Congo.
The photograph depicts a group of armed fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo, standing in formation across a rolling landscape. The men wear mixed military uniforms and display varying levels of readiness and posture. The foreground includes an off-center figure with a red beret, partly turned away. The land around them is unnaturally pink due to the infrared process, contrasting starkly with their muted uniforms. The tension between the surreal coloration and the realism of the subjects complicates the viewer’s response to conflict.
This image powerfully supports your exhibition’s thesis that war photography does not simply document violence but constructs its meaning:
- Visibility and erasure — Congo’s decades-long conflict is often underreported; Mosse makes it impossible to ignore.
- Aestheticization of trauma — The surreal beauty forces ethical discomfort: can beauty coexist with atrocity?
- Camouflage and revelation — The same technology once used to detect enemies is now used to reveal neglect and history.
- Memory and representation — War photography moves beyond journalism into conceptual commentary.
In contrast to photojournalistic immediacy (e.g., Nick Ut or Nachtwey), Mosse’s work questions how viewers consume images of war.
Mosse, Richard. Colonel Soleil’s Boys. 2011. Jack Shainman Gallery,
https://jackshainman.com/artists/richard-mosse