Antietam Bridge, On the Sharpsburg and Boonsboro Turnpike, No. 2, September 1862 1862

This photograph of Antietam Bridge was taken by Alexander Gardner in September 1862. Gardner was among the first to document the American Civil War, using the wet collodion process, a complex and labor-intensive technique that yielded incredibly sharp images on glass plate negatives. The image's stark realism stems from the material truth of photography itself, a direct transcription of light and shadow. Note the texture of the stone bridge, the debris caught in the Antietam Creek, and the way the water reflects the overcast sky. The tonal range, from the deep blacks to the subtle grays, captures the somber mood of a nation divided. Gardner’s photographs were not just documents; they were also commodities, produced and sold to a public eager for news from the front. This image implicates us as consumers, looking back at a pivotal moment in American history and a reminder of the human cost of conflict. The amount of work that went into producing an image like this - from the battlefield to the darkroom, reminds us that even photography is a kind of craft.