Manassas, Virginia 1861 - 1865

Curator: Andrew Joseph Russell captured this scene, "Manassas, Virginia," sometime between 1861 and 1865, employing the albumen silver print technique. The gelatin-silver print offers us a muted, almost melancholic view. What's your immediate take on the image? Editor: A feeling of quiet anticipation. The landscape dominates; the figures crossing that pontoon bridge feel like intrusions, yet there's no dramatic flourish. A sense of foreboding hangs in the air, almost imperceptible. Curator: I think it's essential to place this work within the context of Civil War photography and its relationship to documentary history and art. Before this war, photography's potential in such settings hadn't been truly realized. Consider the limitations: slow exposure times, cumbersome equipment. This photographer was deliberately constructing a certain narrative. Editor: Precisely. I'm struck by who is centered. We are looking at a conflict overwhelmingly shaped by race and identity, yet there isn’t enough direct engagement with race on the level of who is pictured and how, or whose perspectives were actively suppressed from representation at the time of documentation, especially those impacted by slavery. Curator: And it brings forth ideas regarding visibility. Russell held a commissioned position, so there were official imperatives for him in these projects that were bound to find their way into his representations. This photo certainly speaks to military infrastructure. However, one could interpret it more deeply, relating that sense of crossing into something, stepping into an uncertain future, where identity and destiny would undergo some considerable shift. Editor: The war as a great rupture, an intervention into a flawed social contract – yes, it’s palpable. And the stillness enforces it, a moment suspended before the storm fully breaks. Photography does so much here to underscore the sheer scope of human activity. A landscape once quiet now serving the aims of organized human conflict, something we are all still coming to terms with today. Curator: A somber reminder frozen in silver. Editor: It certainly is. One cannot disengage fully once taking a close look.