MoMA Learning

Alexander Gardner prolifically documented the American Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1865. Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg is from his Photographic Sketchbook of the War (1865), a collection of 100 photographs of the conflict. The image represents the tragic aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg (which caused the largest number of casualties of the entire war) by focusing on a single dead solider lying inside what Gardner called a “sharpshooter’s den.” Later analysis revealed that he had staged the image to intensify its emotional effect. Though this practice was not uncommon at the time, its discovery made the photograph the subject of controversy. Gardner moved the soldier’s corpse and propped up his head so that it faced the camera. He then placed his own rifle next to the body, emphasizing the soldier’s horizontality and the cause of his death.

Photography was still a relatively new invention in the mid-19th century, and the Civil War was one of the first conflicts to be documented. Because the process of taking and developing photographs at this time was lengthy and labor-intensive, early war photographers were limited to capturing campsites, military preparations, or the aftermath of battles. The action itself happened too rapidly for their cameras to be able to record.