Blue & Gray is a series of images drawn from my curiosity and bewilderment of the Civil War. I am in awe of the men that marched off line by line; brother alongside brother, father alongside son. Often with certain defeat, they fought year after year and the cost of their conflict still resonates. Who were these men? What were their stories? I am amazed how these images and stories can travel through time.
By blending color and whimsy with historical facts and artifacts, this series is my attempt to give these soldiers a chance to face us and to provide us a chance to see them as real people.
All portraits are from original photographs (ambrotypes, tintypes, etc.) obtained from various sources including The Library of Congress, gifts of Private Collectors, and created by combining the original photograph, my own photographs, illustrations/photos by artists/photographers of the time, and scans/photographs I took of various authentic Civil War objects (uniform buttons, belt buckles, etc.) body parts or locations.
If 2.4% of Americans died in a war today, the nation would lose over 7 million people; but I think more telling is that the issues being fought over in the 1860s remain pertinent and controversial i.e., the character of our nation, opposing ideas of freedom, and citizenship for the people in it.