ABSTRACT
Drawing on contemporary theories of representation and signification, Alan Trachtenberg considers the crucial role of photography in constructing historical narratives. Trachtenberg focuses on the Civil War as the first American crisis to fully avail itself of “historicism-by-photography,” the creation of a palpable sense of reality in recollections of the past through photographic evidence. In particular, photographic albums that simulated historical archives, designed for the intimate conditions of home viewing, are examined for the extent to which they provide, through the judicious combination of image and text, a structured discourse about the events and meaning of the war.
Challenging the commonplace belief in the incontrovertible reality, and thus reliability, of the photograph, Trachtenberg argues that both the meaning and the documentary value of the photograph can be called into question. The Civil War photographic album emerges as a purposeful narrative construction of which the most compelling truth is affirmation of the camera’s presence as a witness to the past and thus of its privileged status as authorized purveyor of historical knowledge.
