🖼 The 1861 – 1865 Civil War can be viewed as the starting point for photography in the United States. In fact, quite often major historical upheavals offer artists a wealth of new topics and material to work with. Therefore, unsurprisingly, it was at this time that photography in the United States discovered new horizons, primarily with the birth of documentary photography and photo reporting. Alexander Gardner and Jacob Riis stood at the roots of this process. 🔴Gardner became famous not only for his impressive images of the Civil War, but also his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln. He also left us historical images of the talks between US leaders and American Indian tribal chiefs. 🔴Riis was better known as a fighter against social inequality. In his documentary photos, he presented an unvarnished depiction of the dire conditions ordinary Americans had to face in their everyday lives. By the way, his images caught US President Theodore Roosevelt’s attention. 🎬 Many decades later, Martin Scorsese used Riis’ images as reference material when working on the Gangs of New York, an Oscar-nominated film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio 🏆 🔴Timothy H. O’Sullivan also made a contribution to chronicling the Civil War. He witnessed these events as a frontline correspondent, and later took part in geological expeditions to the US West as their official photographer. It is through his lens that the world discovered the Wild West. O’Sullivan’s photos made history. Let’s discover the way he saw the Wild Wild West 📸 #stenincontest