War in the World: Tim Hetherington & the Julia Norrell Collection at the Corcoran
Commemorating the history of conflict can take many forms, depending on the era. In a new pair of exhibits at the Corcoran Gallery of Art covering the Civil War and the recent war in Afghanistan, the striking differences in the tools, subject matter, and point of view are bookends to the evolution of documentary photography and armed conflict.
Shadows of History: Photographs of the Civil War from the Collection of Julia J. Norrell, presents photographs that span the years during and around the Civil War, yet they are the places of war, without the war. There is always a distance, even when staring directly into weary gazes. These are the landscapes and regiments of war, but captured at moments of quietness and stillness that surprise, until you realize that as one of the first wars documented by photography, the absence of action in these photographs was largely a product of the available technology.
Photographic process in those years was fairly cumbersome; glass plates, photographic boxes, a complicated chemical process and a lack of fast shutter speed made action shots virtually impossible. Instead of the battle, we get the anticipation and the detritus. Fast forward 150 years and you can see the results of not only the advanced technology of digital photography, but the tools and trade of modern warcraft, and the soldiers who carry its burden.
Tim Hetherington’s Sleeping Soldiers is intimate, up-close and confined, even in its outdoor landscapes of Afghanistan. It shows, but it also tells; it gives us the emotional range of the toll of war. It moves quickly, but it also freezes. One alternates at looking at everything, unable to focus, or focusing only on a small piece of the scene, almost obsessing over small details.
This is the product of immediacy, lightening speeds and digital photography to be sure, but also the skill of a practiced hand, of someone more than an observer at the beginning or the end of a battle. It’s the story of a uniformed soldier’s life in the 21st century, but it’s also the tale of an embedded photographer, his legacy and the legacy of all wars.
Both exhibits are open now through May 6, 2012.
