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History
painting already had a long and
distinguished career when photography
finally came along in 1839. While
on-the-spot photojournalism would not
arrive until faster materials and
cameras became available in the 20th
century, manipulated photographs
sometimes masqueraded as documentary
pictures. Here,
the President of the Confederate States
of America, Jefferson Davis, is shown
staring down the bayonetted barrel of a
Union rifle as he is captured at the
end of the Civil War. While accounts of
his apprehension vary, Davis was
apparently wearing his wife's overcoat
and a shawl in an effort to escape
detection. (The bonnet tied with
ribbons and the makeshift skirt are
among the embellishments added by
"fevered reporters" eager to ridicule
Davis as a cowardly cross-dresser,
making this an early example of
propaganda photography.) When soldiers
caught a glimpse of Davis's riding
boot, they realized that he was no
lady. In
this concocted image, only the face and
perhaps the boot have photographic
origins; the rest is the handiwork of
an artist. Francis
Hacker (Rhode Island): Jeff's
Soliloquy. Albumen carte de visite
photocollage, 1865.
With
the Prussian forces laying
siege to Paris, two rival
governments proceeded to
battle for control of France:
a faction led by Louis-Adolphe
Thiers that signed a peace
treaty with the Germans, and a
radical group that controlled
the city of Paris, known as
the Paris Commune. The
Communards opposed the
National Government of Thiers
for being too loyal to
Napoleon III, too
conservative, and too willing
to pay reparations to the
Germans. When the second siege
of Paris began in the Spring
of 1871, it was French troops
loyal to the Thiers government
who were fighting French
opponents holed up inside the
city. The five-week siege and
the reprisals that followed
left many landmark buildings
in ruins and tens of thousands
dead. The
desperate acts of the
Communards in the final days
of the siege included
executions of hostages. The
event shown took place at la
Roquette prison on May 24,
1871. With four leaders of the
Commune giving the orders,
troops shot the Archbishop of
Paris, Monsignor Darboy; Abbe
Deguerry; three Jesuit
priests; and Judge Bonjean,
President of the Paris Court
of Appeals. Another
photocollage with the same
background shows prison
employees collecting the
bodies. It
is difficult to tell with
certainty whether any portions
of this picture were made from
actual photographs rather than
being drawn or painted,
although it seems likely that
the faces of the victims would
have had photographic origins.
Because the finished product
is made on photographic paper,
and mounted in the standard
format used for photographic
portraits and views, the
public would have accepted
this reconstruction as if it
were an actual documentary
photo of this bloody
event. The
photographer Eugene Appert
made a series of pictures
showing similar atrocities --
but only those committed by
the forces of the Commune and
not the bloody reprisals of
the ultimate victors, the
national troops loyal to
Thiers. Perhaps if the
fighting had gone the other
way, Appert would have
featured the crimes of the
national forces against the
Communards.
1870
and 1871 were years of
devastating political turmoil
and civil war in Paris.
Trouble began when Emperor
Napoleon III declared war on
Prussia in July of 1870. A
month later, German troops
crossed into French territory;
a month after that, the
Germans captured Napoleon III
and 100,000 of his troops.
