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Roger Fenton, Errol Morris, and the Process of Historical Thinking
- 1. The Historical Thinking Process Identification and analysis through the Crimean War photographs of Roger Fenton History 390-003, The Digital Past, Week Three, spring 2014, Lee Ann Cafferata, George Mason University
- 2. Roger Fenton • England’s Roger Fenton is considered the first war photographer. • His photographs of the Crimean War (1853- 1856) made the realities of war more accessible to a public used only to newspaper accounts or sketches and paintings to understand news.
- 3. Crimean War • The Crimean War was a conflict between Russia on one side; Great Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia on the other • At issue: control of the Holy Land, then under the Ottoman Turks, but access to the sites of the region were contested between Catholic France and and Orthodox Russia. • Popular reminders of the Crimean War today: advances in military medical care through the efforts of Florence Nightingale, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade,” and Fenton’s photograhs.
- 4. Roger Fenton Crimean War Collection • 263 of Fenton’s photographs from the Crimean war are digitized and on-line through the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov.mutex.gmu.edu/pictures/collection/ftncnw/background.html • The Fenton Crimean War collection is contextualized in the Library of Congress on-line catalog
- 5. Fenton’s Letters • Roger Fenton’s letters from the Crimea are digitized and on-line via De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
- 6. Who is Errol Morris? • Documentary film maker • Writer • Called a non-fiction artist, a few of his films include the Academy-Award-winning, The Fog of War (2003), the multiple-award-winning The Thin Blue Line (1988, Netflix streaming), Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, JFK
- 7. Morris (continued) • An avid explorer, Morris is also described as obsessive, overall strange, and sometimes brilliant. • His article trilogy about his quest to establish which photograph came first generated 223,000 words in reader comments. Added to the 25,000 words in his articles, the length exceeds that of Moby Dick.
- 10. But consider • Photography was a new technology at the time. • The photographer was limited to static scenes because of the status of his equipment • Viewers assumed photographs were posed or staged rather than eye-witness accounts of events. They were not considered guarantors of truth. • Fenton often looked for or considered artistic approaches to his work. Manipulated cannonballs, very simply, created a more intense statement of the havoc and desolation of war.
- 11. How did Morris go about analyzing the primary sources? • Morris followed steps of the historical thinking process. • He asked a question. • The he turned to • Sourcing • Contextualizing • Close Reading • Reading the Silences • Corroborating
- 12. What were the steps of the historical thinking process? • He consulted specialists to hear multiple theories and the foundations of those theories • He queried other primary sources. • He contextualized the photographs in the chronology (the time) of the war and the geographic space of the historical narrative. • He investigated the state of the technology of photography during the Crimean War era-- 1854-56. (contextualized the technology)
- 13. Next Steps • Morris conducted a close reading of the visual content of the photographs • He looked at the silences. What wasn’t there? • Throughout his investigation, he corroborated conclusions, including the opinions and biases of other historical and forensic photography experts
- 14. The Grand Finale • Morris turned to digital technology • Forensic photographic analysis enabled Morris to rule out categories of analysis and add additional factors • In addition to scientific evidence, forensic analysis cited the need to look at photographs as both representational and as art and as the reflection of the photographer’s objectives.