Realism to Virtual Reality

The article about war photography was interesting in how you can see the progression of photography in a different way and light. Beginning with civil war photography where the images were still and static. They had to take it after the battle due to the slow cameras. As a result images came back as gruesome and gory and a reality check for the Americans who saw their loved ones dead. This time it was portrayed as awful instead of meaningful and documentary-like. Also through reading this it made me think that their is another reason these photographs were so awful compared to other war photographs to come. Reason being that in the Civil War was Americans fighting against Americans. It was a battle between us essentially instead of other wars where the entire country rises up in patriotism to fight, the Civil War was split so basically fighting your brother. That does not take away from the fact that WWI and WWII photos were not as gruesome but also they were scene more as a victory and American pride. Moving onto film, there is something about war movies that the public loves. We like to see action and winning battles without being there. There is so much history connected with Wars that people find very intriguing. It almost is as if it were a replay but in the safety of your theater seat. War photography and images will always serve as a way of documenting the past.