When nearly 100 Civil War photo geeks crowded around the (in)famous nest of a fallen Confederate "sharpshooter" in Devil's Den on Saturday afternoon, we were in for a rare treat: a real, live re-enactor willing to play dead. It didn't take much for the Center For Civil War Photography's Gary Adelman to persuade Bryan Parkhurst of Seven Valleys, Pa., who just happened to be on the scene, to duplicate the lifeless form of a Rebel photographed by Alexander Gardner assistant Timothy O'Sullivan on July 6, 1863, three days after the Battle of Gettysburg. Adelman, the CCWP's vice president/ball of kinetic energy, carefully posed Parkhurst, who lay motionless for 20 minutes or so while we CCWP "Image of War" attendees shot our own images at one of the most visited spots on the battlefield.
While I didn't nail this "Then & Now," the chance to feature on the blog a re-enactor replicating one of the war's iconic images was too good to pass up. Download a high-res version of the 1863 photograph at the Library of Congress' excellent web site. And here's a detailed explanation of how the body of the young Confederate "sharpshooter" ended up behind the stone barricade.
For a "Then & Now" on steroids of the images above, visit my companion Civil War blog here.
 |
| Bryan Parkhust plays dead while Tim Smith of Center For Civil War Photography explains the scene. |
 |
| Gary Adelman, VP of the Center For Civil War Photography, holds a copy of the iconic 1863 image. |
 |
| Re-enactor Bryan Parkhurst, who represents a 2nd Maryland CSA private, was a popular photo subject at the Center For Civil War Photography's annual "Image of War" seminar. |
Dang it.. Now I feel bad for pushing you out of the way for my own photo. And you probably would have got a better shot if I didn't trip you.
ReplyDeleteYou did well sir! Great shot.