the civil war

over the past few weeks, i've been watching the ken burns film, the civil war. besides the impression left from heartbreaking accounts of battles and lives lost, i have been so impressed by the photographs in this film. it is a very long film, and i have found that it rarely uses the same photographs twice, and even when it does, its uses are spread out so far from each other, you almost do not notice.

i have seen these kinds of photos before—yellowed, mildewed, cracked photos—whether in books or films or even antique stores. but never before this film have i been so taken with the photographs of this era. every photo in this film just captivates me and draws me in. i am so intrigued—with the subject matter, the conditions in which they were taken, the image quality, the fact that these photos have survived over 125 years.

and i noticed how in many of them, the skies are light or almost white—it's one of the things that give them such a recognizably vintage quality. i don't know if it because of the primitive camera of that time—a longer shutter speed? i'm not sure—i'm not a camera techy {although i want to be}.

i'm just guessing it has to do with the shutter speed, because of a comment left on this post, which is where i got the picture for the post you are reading now. the comment stated that the weird effect on my photos was perhaps because the "shutter was hanging a bit." but that is exactly why i loved these photos—the white sky and washed out feel. they seemed vintage to me. so i thought i would take one of them and turn it into a black and white picture and add the sepia filter. sure enough, it had the effect i was looking for—it looks a lot like some of the photos from the film.

i was also struck in this film by the compassion of walt whitman. i learned how much he had gone to these military hospitals where the wounded lay sick and dying. he would recite his poetry to them, giving them a sense of peace in the midst of the hell all around them. i was already somewhat familiar with the life and poetry of walt whitman, but i have come to like him even more since watching this film.

it really is a good film. it is sad—like i said, heartbreaking. it is all new to me again. in high school, it was just history lessons. now it is to me a horrible part of america's history that saddens me and moves me. but i am also very different from having watched it. it puts a lot in perspective. it makes me so glad that that chapter of slavery is over {although it angers me that slavery exists anywhere still today}. but it also puts my job loss in a different light. being unemployed does not seem so devastating after i watch what these men, women, and even children went through during those awful four years—as well as what the slaves endured for years before.