Photo Interactive: The Civil War, Now in Living Color
How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs
- By Ryan R. Reed
- Smithsonian.com, February 22, 2013
(Courtesy of Prints & Photographs, Library of Congress)
The photographs taken by masters such as Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner have done much for the public’s perception of the Civil War. But all of their work is in black and white. The battlefield of Gettysburg is remembered as a shade of grey and the soldiers as ghostly daguerreotype images. Photography was in its infancy during the time and colorizing photographs was rare and often lacked the detail of modern imagery.
John C. Guntzelman is changing that; he’s created an accurate colorized portrayal of the Civil War. In The Civil War in Color: A Photographic Reenactment of the War Between the States, Guntzeman tediously colorized hundreds of photos covering every aspect of the war.
Why did you choose to colorize Civil War photos as opposed to photos from another era?
The idea for this book came up when my wife and I were on vacation in Maui. This was back very late in 2007 and she was reading a book about the Civil War. We were both aware the Civil War sesquicentennial was on the horizon and somehow the idea came about to gather photographs dealing with the Civil War and colorize those.
Comments (7)
There is no blood because the body had been moved and setup up for photographing. This is the same soldier that is portrayed in the Confederate Sniper Devil Den photo.
Posted by Christopher on April 29,2013 | 11:53 AM
Fantastic job! They look like they could have been taken yesterday. Really brings the period to life.
Posted by Jim Bonnett on March 2,2013 | 12:11 PM
I totally agree with Ms. Hummel.
Posted by Terry Brasko on February 27,2013 | 08:04 AM
As a civil war enthusiast and professional artist, I'm immensely disappointed with these- and with the fact that the Smithsonian is highlighting the work. I appreciate the philosophy behind the colorized photos and the amount of work that must have gone into this book, but the efforts are regrettable by industry standards. Colorizing black and white photos is a tedious process, yes, but it requires an intimate knowledge of the subtlety of color that Guntzelman clearly isn't employing. There's no account for light temperature, for colour variation in any of the subjects- you can't just jump into Photoshop and set a green layer to "color" and expect those trees to look realistic. Real colour is far more subtle than what he's achieved, and these just end up looking like poor Victorian colorizations than anything like true, colour photography. Love the idea and I ABSOLUTELY commend the author for his efforts, but I feel like a man with cinematography and difecting credits should have a better eye for something beyond local color. -Claire Hummel
Posted by Claire Hummel on February 25,2013 | 05:21 PM
Truly amazing! Thank you.
Posted by Mari on February 24,2013 | 09:50 PM
Absolutely incredible...
Posted by Kathy P on February 24,2013 | 11:34 AM
as a history and civil war fan, these are just great for a true feeling of the war and the people of that time frame, would be excited to see more and think would help us get a better idea of the scope and depth of the battlefields,people and clothes of this era's great man and woman
Posted by john griffith on February 22,2013 | 03:12 PM