The lost art of Civil War Photography

Lina Nissley
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Fritz Kirsch is a former middle school language arts teacher and period collodion process photographer who is known for his photography at Civil War reenactments.

At times, his photography using 19th century camera equipment looks so authentic from the era that his photography has been mistaken for genuine period-dated photos. Kirsch described one of those times, “I’ve gone to gun shows and seen my pictures for sale as originals, and I looked down and I said ‘doesn’t the picture of that guy look a lot like me?’ and the guy said ‘get away from my booth,'" Kirsch remembered, laughing.

Kirsch has always held an interest in the 19th century and photography, and has been honing his craft since he was around 11-years-old.

To get his start in the interesting field of historical photography, Kirsch searched antique shops in search of 19th century photos and cameras. “There are antique camera shows and I put out the word as to what kind of cameras I wanted and people found them for me and there I was,” Kirsch said, describing how he found the equipment to recreate the photographic process of the era.

While he was a teacher, he used his photography as a way to generate income in the summertime between school years.

“You had two choices, you could carefully put money aside – which I did – or you picked up another job. My other job was photography,” he said. “I did civil war reenactments, shot weddings, portraits, little leagues, anything I come up with as a way for my photography job. And I would make out pretty well, I would make probably a fourth of what I normally made as a schoolteacher.”

Kirsch follows and photographs the Civil War reenactments in his 19th-century, horse-drawn darkroom and photographic wagon. When he travels with the wagon, it is pulled with his van instead of horses, however. “The wagon has been anywhere up to Canada and West to the Mississippi,” he said about his travels.

Lighting is a crucial aspect when composing a picture using a 19th century camera. A modern camera can automatically focus, whereas when using a 19th-century camera, the focus must be manually shifted with something called the bellows and track, with a mechanism on the side that is adjusted until the wanted picture comes into focus. The process can be time-consuming and takes plenty of dedication and patience.

In addition, when looking through the lens of a 19th century camera, the picture is upside down and backward. Kirsch explained that he eventually learned to reverse the image in his mind which helped him compose the picture to its best advantage. “What is really weird is after you photograph with these kinds of cameras as I did for 30 years, your brain actually gets to see it the right way. It’s phenomenal. You could come up and say, ‘hey it’s upside down and backward’ but in my head, I’m seeing it as normal just by familiarity with it,” Kirsch said.

Another aspect that makes photographing with 19th-century equipment so difficult, Kirsch says, is the amount of time it takes to capture a photographic image.

Due to the photographic process of cameras from the 19th century, subjects of the photo had to sit very still for a number of seconds, or the photo would turn out blurry. A metal stand device was used to prop up the subject's heads and hold them in place. The stand was carefully placed to keep it hidden and not disrupt the composition of the picture. The longest subjects would have to pose for during the Civil War era of photography could be up to 45 seconds.

Kirsch explained why Victorians and subjects of 19th century photographs often didn’t smile in their photos: “The reason people didn’t smile in the pictures had to do with they didn’t want to appear insincere, and they couldn’t figure out any reason just to smile. They didn’t want to be like the guy selling used wagons even though he knew the wheels were rotted through or something like that. So you didn’t smile because you wanted to show that you were a real sincere person,” he said.

Kirsch named Matthew Brady as an important figure in the history of photography, who also seems to be a source of inspiration for him and his work. Brady was one of the earliest American photographers who is best known for his photographs of the Civil War. He photographed many important historical figures, including Abraham Lincoln, who granted Brady permission to document the Civil War.

“Matthew Brady is the one who sent the word out and sent more Civil War photographers out into the field to capture important historical moments. If it hadn't been for Brady, maybe he would have been the only one,” Kirsch said.

Kirsch himself got the chance to visit one of Brady’s former photography studios, which is located in Washington D.C.

At the time Fritz visited, the office had become a financial headquarters for the Sears company. Kirsch walked into the office dressed in 19th century garb, including a white coat and outfit very similar to one Matthew Brady wore in his self-portraits.

“I went in dressed like I showed you with my photograph of myself with my wagon and all that, and I threw it down on the table and said ‘I want to see the boss!’ The woman looked at me and she looked at all the pictures of my wagon and the pictures of me and the way I was dressed and finally, she said, ‘Let me get my boss.’ I must have freaked her out because I looked like I had just stepped out of a time machine, and I did it just for fun just to see what reaction I would get,” Kirsch shared.

Kirsch is one of the few photographers with the time, dedication and equipment to perfectly compose 19th century photos.

“There aren’t a lot of people doing this style of photography, maybe no more than say a dozen. Now there are other people who know how to do this style of photography and they might take a course in it, but they don’t do it regularly like me and my friends do by going to reenactments and shooting pictures or coming to studios and Gettysburg,” he explained.

Among Kirsch’s accomplishments, his photographs have been exhibited at the Farnsworth Military Gallery. His work has also been featured as the cover of the Camp Chase Gazette, a national magazine for Civil War historical reenactors.