City of Atlanta, GA, No. 1 1866

George N. Barnard made this albumen print, titled "City of Atlanta, GA, No. 1," during the American Civil War. It is part of a series of photographs documenting the devastation of the South. The image offers a bird's eye view of Atlanta’s infrastructure, a crucial railway hub that was targeted by the Union Army. What we see are the ruins after the city was evacuated and set ablaze. In the foreground are locomotives, disabled but present, symbolizing both the industrial might and the vulnerability of the Confederacy. Barnard’s photographs are documents of war, but they're also artifacts within the institutional history of photography. Commissioned and distributed as part of wartime reports, images like these played a crucial role in shaping public opinion. The politics of imagery are evident here, as the photographs served to document the impact of war. Understanding the full historical context necessitates archival research into military records, period newspapers, and personal accounts. Art’s meaning is always contingent on the social and institutional context.