Gettysburg and a Robert Graves Poem

 Recalling War

Robert Graves

What, then, was war? No mere discord of flags
But an infection of the common sky
That sagged ominously upon the earth Even when the season was the airiest May.
Down pressed the sky, and we, oppressed, thrust out.

 


 
Boastful tongue, clenched fist and valiant yard.
Natural infirmaries were out of mode,
For Death was young again: patron alone
Of healthy dying, premature fate-spasm.""

The image above was taken last May 2013 over looking the fields from the Eternal Flame Peace Monument at Gettysburg.I am reading up on my World War One literature in preparation for new art for the 100 year anniversary of the start of WW1. This image I took with my iphone jumped out at me after reading this part of the poem. I would like to find a way to link the two together in not such a literal way.

Holga Camera work at Gettysburg

Devils Den

Last March I was able to get back to Gettysburg. This time I wanted to experiment & take some photographs with a plastic Holga camera. I have not used one before & was not sure of what to expect. I shot a total of four rolls of 120mm back & white film. To my surprise the photos all turned out. Most of them showed the characteristic light fogging around the edges. Sometimes the shutter didn’t move out of the way fast enough and clipped off the corners. Over all I’m quite satisfied with the results. The photos create a mystery all there own. And it has opened up some new approaches for working with photographic images.
Although I had limited time to roam the field, the weather for once cooperated & didn’t rain. March weather can be dodgy but on this day it worked out great. Early spring is a classic time to explore battlefields because the foliage is all down & there are no bugs. I started my visit at Benner Hill to the North East of the field. It was the site of a Confederate artillery position. From hear the confederate guns were to support the bombardment of Cemetery Hill before Pickett’s Charge. Instead the guns were pounded by counter battery fire from the superior Union guns on Cemetery Hill. The Confederate guns were forced to retire.

Next Stop Rose Farm.
With William Frassanito’s book “Gettysburg: A Journey in Time” in hand, I hopped the snake fence into the famous field on Rose Farm. My goal was to line up some shots that correspond with Gardner & O’Sullivan photos of Confederate dead. It is quite a moving experience exploring this field. There is now doubt that the rocks are still there in the proper placement. The tree line has been restored to approximate1863 placement. However I don’t think I found any of the original camera angles. It will take much more time & study to set up a proper then & now study.
I am quite pleased with my photos anyway. It is clear that my photos allude to the originals but have there own quality.
I am experimenting with different scanning processes for digitizing the negatives. I first scanned the negatives with a flatbed scanner & got some interesting results. The images looked very 1863ish. The sky and trees were out of focus & blurry. It is quite interesting. Scanning the images with a film scanner gives more normal photographic results.

View South from the Rose Farm

Rose Farm looking West

View of the 20th Maine entrenchments from the base of little round top.

Civil War Small Works

Ridgeline, McPherson’s Farm, Gettysburg
09/20/09
Ink Jet Print, Earth, Gouache
5” X 15.5”

This image depicts the ridgeline on McPherson’s Farm looking south. Native soil taken from the area outlines the slight rise in the ground. It was along this rise that the Union forces first met the Confederate forces coming in from the West starting the battle of Gettysburg.

The photographs that I am working with are from my collection that I have taken during visits to Civil War battlefields. I photograph vistas from vantage points that best capture the monumental movements of both nature and armies. The images feature sweeping scenes of vast desolate open spaces that vanish into the distant horizon. The compositional elements are open fields, tree lines, fences and sky. Strong perspective lines draw the eye in, enhancing the feeling of vastness in the scene.
I create a panoramic image by standing in one place and panning the camera to capture the horizontal landscape. The images are stitched together using Photoshop software creating a wide horizontal field of view. I then print on watercolor paper using an ink jet printer.

After the images are mounted on a rigid surface, I work over them with various water-based media & the collected earth pigment. The over-painting process smears & smudges the underlying ink jet print. This creates an interaction between the paint and the print. When painted, the printed blacks & grays morph into soft blues & greens with unexpected halo-like effects around the edges. Colored gouache mixes with the ink, softening the hard edges of the printed image. The paint texture is translucent and allows the underlying forms and structure to show through.

View of Thomas’ Farm, Monocacy MD. Battlefield
09/09
Ink Jet Print, Earth, Gouache
5” X 13.5”

View looking West at the Thomas Farm in Monocacy, Maryland. On the fields depicted, the Union army held up a confederate advance long enough to save Washington D.C. Local native soil was used to depict the contour of the land.

In my painting I welcome elements of randomness, chance, and chaos. The media undergoes transformation on the picture surface itself. Paints are applied to the surface in a pure form and then mix and morph on the surface of the painting. For example I work a lot with iron powder which can be made to rust over time resulting in rich unexpected color details and texture. The addition of soil creates flat neutral blocks of earth tones that can obscure the underlying space or enhance the perspective.
Best Farm, Monocacy Battlefield
09/09
Ink Jet Print, Earth, Gouache
6.6” X 13”
View looking south to the Monocacy River from the Confederate line. Local earth is used to describe the landscape.

Copse of Trees, Route of Advance, Gettysburg
09/09
Ink Jet Print, Rust, Gouache, Earth
7.5” X 15.5”
View from the starting point of the Confederate attack known as Pickett’s Charge. The copse of trees visible on the horizon was the target of the charge.