City Point, Virginia 1861 - 1865

Andrew Joseph Russell created this albumen silver print, "City Point, Virginia," using a process that was itself a product of industrial chemistry. The glass plate negative was carefully developed, then used to print the image you see here. The materiality of the photograph is critical. The tones are a result of a chemical reaction, light hitting silver particles held in place by the paper’s surface. But beyond this immediate process, you can sense the profound social forces at work here. The technology of photography was crucial for documenting the Civil War, of course. But consider also the timber, metal, and human labor that went into building those ships, which are so central to the composition. Look closely, and you can see that the waterfront is a hive of activity. Russell makes visible the colossal scale of that conflict, and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. This makes us reflect on the relationship between image making, war, and the labor that underwrites it all.