Picture

I chose this picture of the dead soldier by Mathew Brady because it is striking how death equalizes us all. This is a young man who should have his whole life ahead of him, instead he is a body on the field. He does not appear wounded. If it was not for the uncomfortable position he is in he might be asleep.
I looked Mathew Brady up on the internet and found that he was notorious for taking credit for others' photographic work AND for moving bodies into a position which might have greater viewer impact. He would also place props in the picture for more impact. I believe that he sometimes would pose a Confederate soldier with Union weapons. I was told to look closely at the canteens that are with the soldier. The one in his bag is of one type and the one on the ground is a totally different shape. Perhaps that is an example of mixed props.
The image made me stop and think how short and violent life can be and I suppose the impact is the purpose of Brady's posing his subjects. I don't think that it can be called documentary photography if he posed his subjects with props for more effect. You could call it portrait photography. Documentary photography is supposed to tell some truth, part of the truth told in Brady's images is manufactured for maximum benefit rather than the reality of the situation as he came upon it.
My husband, who was a photojournalist, and I had a discussion about the posing of the subjects and whether if they were posed it was TRUE documentation. In my opinion if you are documenting the aging process (for example) and you photograph a person over a number of years in the same pose you are documenting THEIR aging process (granted not the aging process in general). But Brady's image is completely manufactured as the soldier has no input into whether he wanted to be photographed in this bunker or where he lay originally. I'd be interested to get feedback about the idea whether posed subjects can be documentary work or whether the image has to be spontaneously captured to be truly documentary.