“실제 전쟁” 사진 찍기 : 월트 휘트먼과 남북전쟁

As his statement “my book and the war is one” clearly proves, Whitman has an indivisible connection with the Civil War. Whitman’s wartime writings such as Drum-Taps, Memories of President Lincoln, and Memoranda during the War are worth reading in relation to his desire for capturing “the real atmosphere of a battle.” Above all, the wartime writings show remarkable photographic images derived from his profound recognition for the limits of verbal representations. As a pioneering war poet, Whitman manifest his preoccupation with photography considered a product of “the realities and science.” His intimate relationship with contemporary photographers such as Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner enables him to incorporate the elaborate details and objective realism of photography into his texts. Whitman wants to visually catch and deliver “the real war” of which “the writers catch very little” by trying to “photograph a tempest” of the Civil War. His wartime poetry and prose describing the wound and the debris of dead soldiers reveal overwhelming photographic images. Thus, it is not surprising that his wartime writings are prominently in accord with the photographs taken by Brady and Gardner. Obviously, just like a cameraman rather than a painter, Whitman could thoroughly represent the actual physical things which cannot be captured by the naked eye. In this regard, Whitman as a cameraman strongly reminds Benjamin’s assertion that “magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman.” Accordingly, it becomes evident that the images of the Civil War are strikingly captured in Whitman’s camera eye.