Echoes Of The Civil War: The Civil War Pinhole Project
DAVID RICHARD GALLERY
FRONT COVER: Falco with Pinhole Camera, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper 2014, 12” x 18” BACK COVER: Vicksburg: Winsor Ruins, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper 2012, 30” x 40” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Published on the occasion of the exhibition: Echoes Of The Civil War: The Civil War Pinhole Project July 8 – September 3, 2016 David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 1570 Pacheco Street, A1, Santa Fe, NM 87505 www.DavidRichardGallery.com DavidRichardSFe
DavidRichardGallery
Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC. Catalogue: © 2016 David Richard Gallery, LLC, Santa Fe, NM. Art: © 2012 - 2014, Michael Falco Catalogue Essay and Artist biographies by Howard Rutkowski, New York Installation views in Santa Fe, NM by Greg Zinniel. Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, Santa Fe, NM
Echoes Of The Civil War: The Civil War Pinhole Project
Echoes of the Civil War: The Civil War Pinhole Project by Michael Falco
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In 2011 Michael Falco began documenting the historic sites and recreated events of the American Civil War. Using a pinhole camera, Falco has followed in the steps of contemporary reenactors who keep the memory of this turning point in American history alive. As he writes: “The impressions of these reenactors—so many descended from the very soldiers whose uniforms they wear—brought a dimension of verisimilitude and narrative drive to the project and, through the poetic prism of the pinhole, emerged not as play acting or costume drama, but as ghostly evocations of the spirits that hang over these fields. “The images were created with large-format pinhole cameras— handmade wooden boxes with no lens, no viewfinder, and no shutter—that would have seemed primitive even at the time of the Civil War, but that, in uncanny ways, seems the perfect device for this project. “The camera’s tiny, fixed aperture creates a soft, infinite focal plane—a canvas where details are obscured. The minuscule amount of light entering the camera requires a long exposure time that pushes the images into the ambiguous terrain between landscape and dreamscape. Wind blows, leaves rustle, clouds move, the earth turns. “The pinhole camera lingers on these battlefields slowly drawing in the light. The images breathe with space and time.” Echoes of the Civil War comprises forty images from Falco’s six-year journey across the historic fields of battle described by historian Shelby Foote as a moment in American history that, even more than the American Revolution, defined and continues to define our country today. The Civil War Pinhole Project was exhibited at the Staten Island Museum in New York, in 2015. It has been recognized by the Library of Congress and is now part of the permanent collection of the National Archive on the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton, will publish Echoes of the Civil War, a monograph on The Civil War Pinhole Project in the autumn of 2016.
Michael Falco, Echoes of the Civil War “It’s been an arduous and exhilarating trek across landscapes that remain, preserved by the virtue of their terrible history, very much as they were 150 years ago - oasis now from modernity, pristine and scarred as the great war left them, hallowed and haunting. The past is present on these battlefields.” - Michael Falco 2015 In 2011 photographer Michael Falco began a four-year battlefield to battlefield pinhole camera journey along the anniversary tracks of the American Civil War. The resulting images connect notions of time, place, war and depicted the most elaborate generational “performance art” in the United States - perhaps anywhere. What began as a strictly landscape photography project evolved once Falco met and photographed dedicated re-enactors - many who marched in their great, great grandfathers footsteps, both Union and Confederate. Seeing the war from the “soldiers’ perspective” was entirely new. Soon Falco was compelled to don period garb in the guise of a 19th century photographer. Now able to reach images a sideliner could not, he combined the photographs of the war’s battlefields with the images of the sesquicentennial reenactments happening around the country, adding a contemporary narrative drive to the project. Falco’s battlefield meditations are a sweeping commemoration of a war that is still visible today. Loss of life and destruction during the war has marked these landscapes. The blood spilled into the grass, knolls, and creeks set these battlefields apart as hallowed ground.
Charleston: 54th Massachussetts at Boone Hall Plantation, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 20” x 24”
Although there were over 10,000 skirmishes and battles throughout the war, Falco chose to focus on twenty of the largest engagements. In this exhibition seven of those battles are featured: Manassas, Atlanta Campaign, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Overland Campaign, Petersburg and the Shenandoah Valley.
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Manassas The city of Manassas, Virginia, was the site of two major battles during the Civil War. Referred by the North as the 1st and 2nd Battles of Bull Run, named after a small creek, where much of the fighting took place. 4
The 1st Battle of Manassas was also the first major fight of the Civil War, taking place on July 21, 1861. Union Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell fielded 18,000 inexperienced troops of the Army of the Potomac against an equal number and equally inexperienced Confederate army under Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. Union confidence and the site’s close proximity to Washington, D.C., led a large number of civilians to journey by carriage and observe what was expected to be a quick and easy victory. However, Confederate determination and the exploits of Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, who would earn the nickname ‘Stonewall’ at this first important engagement, forced the Union forces to begin a retreat to Washington. Combined with the confused panic of the civilian onlookers, this quickly turned into a chaotic rout. 2nd Manassas was fought August 28-30, 1862 and it was a much larger engagement with Union forces under Maj. Gen. John Pope totaling 77,000 and Lee’s army with a strength of 50,000. After two days of stalemate, Lee and Stonewall Jackson, reinforced by Maj. Gen. James Longstreet forced a Union retreat. Heavy losses, fatigue and lack of supplies prevented Lee from pursuing. The battle was regarded as another victory for the South.
2nd Manassas: Union Signal Corps, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20” x 24”
Manassas: Battlefield - Henry House at Manassas, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20” x 24”
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The Seven Days Battles
Known as the Sevens Days Battles, the Confederates were fighting back the Union’s Peninsula Campaign led by General George B. McClellen. Over one hundred thousand Union troops marched and fought in the campaign against Lee’s 92,000 Confederates. Over seven days in June of 1862 the two armies grappled in the marshy terrain between the James and Chickahominy Rivers inflicting over 35,000 casualties between the two sides. Although seen as a Confederate victory the Seven Days Battles were ultimately indecisive. McClellen’s Union Army escaped to fight another day. Union - 114,000 soldiers Confederate - 92,000 7 Days Battles, Elizabeth, PA: Officers of the Southern Division, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 40” x 50”
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In 1862 General Robert E. Lee became overall commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. In June Lee led the Confederates in a series of victories outside the rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia in a bloody seven day contest that would solidify Lee’s prowess as a General.
Gaine’s Mill: Gun Smoke on the Meadow, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
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Antietam
The battle that took place on September 17 was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with a total of 22,717 dead, wounded or missing from both sides.
Antietam: Black Hats In The Cornfield, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20” x 24”
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The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, took place September 16-18, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. Numerically-superior Union forces, led by Maj.Gen. George B. McClellan confronted Robert E. Lee’s troops who were dug in behind Antietam Creek. The attacks and counterattacks by both armies prevented the Union from seizing any tactical advantage and Lee’s skirmishes on the 18th provided cover for the Confederates to withdraw. McClelland’s continued caution prevented him from pursuing Lee and thus achieving a decisive victory.
Antietam: Gun Smoke in the Cornfield, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20� x 24�
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Vicksburg Campaign
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In 1862 Vicksburg was the last major southern city along the crucial Mississippi River still in Confederate hands. The city was protected by miles of Confederate entrenchments and guns overlooking the river, which passed a tough challenge for Ulysses S. Grant’s Union armies. Grant’s 75,000 soldiers marched and fought their way through the State of Mississippi and slowly enveloped Vicksburg, cutting off supplies to the beleaguered city. Eventually the eight month Vicksburg Campaign devolved into an all-out siege. Union gunboats in the river joined Grant’s land based forces in bombarding the city into submission. Vicksburg’s residents were forced to dig and live in caves to escape the shelling. Vicksburg’s garrison of troops, along with the city’s residents, were eventually starved-out. The beleaguered city together with 30,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4th 1863. Union - 75,000 soldiers Confederate - 33,000
Vicksburg: Battlefield, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 12” x 30”
Vicksburg: Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20” 11
Vicksburg: Winsor Ruins, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 30” x 40”
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Vicksburg: Vicksburg Caves, Raymond, MS, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 40” x 50”
Vicksburg: Trenches at Vicksburg, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
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Vicksburg: 14 Mile Creek, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
The Railroad Cut at Raymond, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
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Raymond, MS: Battle of Champion Hill, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20” 15
Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg
The Chancellorsville Campaign was hailed as Lee’s ‘perfect battle,’ but it came with a high price of almost 14,000 casualties – a quarter of his army. Most importantly, he lost his most important general, Stonewall Jackson, who was mistakenly shot by his own men. Union casualties totaled 17,000. Lee’s victory prevented the Union forces from seizing their ultimate objective, the Confederate capitol of Richmond.
Chancellorsville: Battle, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 40” x 50”
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From April 30 to May 6, 1983 a series of major battles took place in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, pitting Lee’s force of 60,000 against the Army of the Potomac’s 134,000. Despite overwhelming numbers, the Union command was plagued by caution, incompetence and tactical errors.
Richmond: Trestle Ruins, James River, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
Fredericksburg: 1862 Assault on Marye’s Heights, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20” x 24”
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The Battle of Gettysburg
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In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee marched the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in an attempt to invade the North and win independence for the Confederacy. His forces met with Major General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac, and they entered into the most important and savage battle of the Civil War. For three days the two armies confronted each other around the bucolic town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, turning the town and the surrounding farms into killing fields. In total over 50,000 casualties were inflicted on both armies and it would take over a year before all the dead at Gettysburg were finally interred. Despite the losses and the fact that Lee’s Confederate’s managed to escape back into Virginia, the Union stand at Gettysburg was seen as a victory for the North and a turning point in the war. President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered three months after the battle, redefined the purpose of the war and made the small Pennsylvania town famous. The town is frozen in time. Walking the streets of Gettysburg today is like stepping back to the 19th century. The battlefield at Gettysburg continues to be the most visited battleground of the Civil War. Union Army - 104,000 soldiers Confederate - 75,000 soldiers In the three day battle at Gettysburg there were an estimated 55,000 casualties between the two sides.
Gettysburg: From Little Round Top, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 40” x 50”
Gettysburg: Bushey Farm, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 16” x 20”
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Gettysburg: Little Round Top and the Wheatfield, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 16” x 20”
Gettysburg: Gunners, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 20” x 24”
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Gettysburg: Union Troops at the Battle of the Wheatfield, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 16” x 20”
Gettysburg: The Devil’s Den, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2013, 16” x 20”
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Atlanta In the spring of 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led an army of 75,000 soldiers across the Georgia wilderness from his base at Chattanooga, Tennessee to the gates of the Rebel-held City of Atlanta. 22
This two-month campaign included 17 separate battles and initiated Sherman’s “Total War” strategy. His soldiers destroyed the state’s infrastructure and burned towns as they slogged over the densely forested mountains in this region of Georgia. Sherman was determined to break southern morale and illustrate that they could not resist his determined troops. The campaign ended when Sherman’s soldiers captured, occupied and eventually burned the City of Atlanta, before beginning his famous March to the Sea. Union - 75,000 soldiers Confederate - 50,000 soldiers There were 65,000 casualties between the two sides in this five-month campaign.
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Atlanta: Douglas Bones Jarrett, Resaca, GA Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper 2014, 40” x 50”
Atlanta: Railroad Ruins on the Etowah River, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
Atlanta: Fog at Rockyface Ridge, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
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Atlanta: Union Troops at Resaca, GA, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
Atlanta: The Battle of Resaca, GA, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
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Overland Campaign
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In May of 1864 Ulysses S Grant, the newly appointed Commander of the Union Armies, began a campaign in Virginia designed to bring an end to the Civil War. Unlike prior battles of the war, the fighting that began in the Virginia Wilderness in the spring of 1864, would be continuos and strain both armies in a desperate war of attrition. This new incessant warfare changed the nature of soldiering and the look of the battlefields themselves. Advancements in 19th century weaponry led the troops of both armies to construct earthworks and trenches to protect themselves from the unceasing combat. Evidence of these earthworks can still be found all over Virginia today. From May to June 1864 the Union and Confederate armies in Virginia clashed in four major battles inflicting nearly 100,000 casualties in the two armies. The four battles, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, the North Anna River and the Battle of Cold Harbor, despite their toll were ultimately indecisive. The faltering campaign inclined General Grant to disengage his troops leading them across the James River toward the City of Petersburg where the next campaign would begin. The Wilderness Battlefield in Spotsylvania County Virginia had been fought over before. In 1863 the Battle of Chancellorsville occurred over the same ground. As Union soldiers marched to fight on this ground one year later, a soldier recalled, “It was an easy matter to discover just where pools of blood had been, for those particular spots were marked by the greenest tufts of grass and brightest flowers to be found upon the field.� Union -103,000 soldiers Confederate - 65,000 In the month-long Overland Campaign there were over 85,000 casualties between the two sides.
Overland: Cannon Fire at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16� x 20� 27
Overland: Confederates at the Battle at Spotsylvania Courthouse, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16� x 20�
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Overland: Bloody Angle, Pinhole photograph, glicee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
Overland: The Tangles of Virginia, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 40” x 50”
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Siege of Petersburg
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In June of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant rushed troops to the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia in an attempt to capture a vital Confederate railroad hub. Although lightly defended, the Confederates were able to hold back the Union advance in time for reinforcements to arrive, setting off the ten month Siege of Petersburg. The Confederates would eventually construct thirty-five miles of earthworks to protect the City. In April 1865, after ten months of fighting, Grant and the Union armies would finally break the siege. The breakthrough at Petersburg forced the abandonment of the Confederate capital at Richmond, twenty-five miles to the north, and precipitated the last campaign of the Civil War. Just one week later the war would end in Virginia with Robert E. Lee signing the surrender on April 9th, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse. Union - 125,000 soldiers Confederate - 52,000 soldiers In the ten month siege of Petersburg over 70,000 casualties between the two sides.
Petersburg: Battle of Fort Harrison, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 40� x 50�
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Petersburg: Downtown Petersburg, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16� x 20�
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Petersburg: Fort Gregg at Petersburg, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16� x 20�
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Shenandoah Valley
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Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is arguably one of the most beautiful places in America. Hemmed in by the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains, during the Civil War the valley served as a breadbasket for the Confederates. The region’s abundance of farms, cattle and horse flesh supplied the Confederate forces in the field and all but guaranteed that Virginia’s Valley would be contested throughout the war. The valley was the scene of Stonewall Jackson’s strategic and nimble victories in 1862. In 1864, Grant sent General Phil Sheridan to finally shutdown Confederate operations in the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan’s troops laid waste to the valley burning everything in their path and even the score at the Battle of Third Winchester and Fisher’s Hill. In the fall of 1864 Union troops would finally rout the Confederate’s at the Battle of Cedar Creek, bolstering northern support for Lincoln’s reelection campaign. Union - 35,000 soldiers Confederate - 20,000 soldiers “All are on the same plain….the rich and the poor, the high and low,the learned and unlearned. The minie ball and the screeching shell make not a distinction, but plough their cruel furrows until exhausted, or pass on like invisible fiends” - Vermont private after the Battle of Third Winchester
Shenandoah Valley: Bushong Farm, New Market, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16� x 20� 35
Shenandoah Valley: The Ridges at Cedar Creek, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 40” x 50”
Shenandoah Valley: Horse Drawn Artillery Grand Review at Cedar Creek, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
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Shenandoah Valley: View from Signal Knob, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2012, 16” x 20”
Shenandoah Valley: Signal Corps at Cedar Creek, Pinhole photograph, giclee print on double weight fiber paper, 2014, 16” x 20”
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