drmstream[writing]

The set­ting is so casual; it’s as if the extras were told to take a break, and some lay back to nap before the film­ing started back up again. The com­po­si­tion is ele­gant and clas­sic. The effect mutes the meta­phys­i­cal truth of the photo: This pic­ture chron­i­cles death.

The fine line of the per­spec­tive draws our eye: the stone wall, sturdy and geo­met­ric, van­ish­ing at the hori­zon point into the shal­low trench, which is bal­anced in its line by the dark­en­ing shade of the ground to the left. Stark trees; long, slen­der mus­kets; ran­dom detri­tus.  These have a com­pelling symetry.

Those are dead men lay­ing there, Their still shapes sub­dued. This is a great pho­to­graph, but does it have a soul?

Each of those men was brought to a sav­age end. They become the ele­ments of a still life in their decomposition.

A note: The Con­fed­er­ate troops, out­num­bered by 2 to 1, lost 13,000 men at Chan­cel­lorsville.