biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1823–96)
|
| biography:
| Photographer, born near Lake George, New York, USA. Studying daguerreotype photography as a teenager, he soon opened his own New York City studio (1844) taking portraits of famous Americans, and opening a second studio in Washington, DC (1847). He published The Gallery of Illustrious Americans in 1850. Esteemed by Lincoln, he was permitted to take photographs of the First Battle of Bull Run (1861), returning with the first American battle pictures. Assisted by Alexander Gardner and Tim O'Sullivan, he spent $100 000 to deploy teams of photographers who documented, with bulky collodion wet plate cameras, the major engagements in the Civil War (1861–5). His images of individuals, groups, and battle scenes were widely reproduced, although Brady did not take many of the pictures attributed to him. Plagued by poor vision, he was forced to sell his war negatives to settle his debts in 1865, and died in poverty. |
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