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    Civic Picturing vs. Realist Photojournalism the Regime of Illustrated News, 1856-1901Author(s): Kevin G. Barnhurst and John NeroneSource: Design Issues, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 59-79Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511930

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    CivicPicturings.RealistPhotoournalismTheRegime f Illustrated ews,1856-1901Kevin .Barnhurstnd ohnNeroneThe visual cultureof the Americanpressdevelopedfrom the print-erly newspaper of the eighteenthand early nineteenthcenturies,through he Victoriannewspaperof the latenineteenthcentury,andto the modernnewspaperwhich had emergedby the 1930s. BothprinterlyandVictorian ewspapersused a designsense that we call"vernacular,"mphasizingapparentbalance and symmetry, illingspacewith an increasinglyvariedtypography.'Newspaperdesignwas not given to establishinghierarchyor categorization;henewswas largelyunsegmented,presentingan impressionof an unmap-ped and perhaps unmappableworld. At first,even the boundarybetween advertisingand editorial contentwas not clearlydemar-cated.

    Thissyncreticpresentationof content on paperexpressed nvisual formthe habits of news workers.Newspaper design did notexist apart romthe routinesandpracticesof journalism,as it oftendoes today,but as an extrusionof standardmodes of news gather-ing. Thus,formfollowedpractice.Theactiveroles of reportinggrewout of the morepassive news-gatheringtasksof colonialprinters,who received correspondenceand culled other sources, print ororal,to fill theirpages. As the printerlyage gave way to the age ofVictorianpapers,these rolescoalesced, n factif not in name,as thecorrespondentand the scavenger.Thecorrespondentwas a manlyobserverof events and personagesin distantand (usually)power-ful places;he (rarely he) was a persona, hough usuallypseudony-mous,who conveyed subjectivempressionswith an air ofauthorityand confidentiality,much like the colonial letter writer. The scav-engerwas not a persona,buta completelyanonymousnews hound,combing first the exchange papers then the police courts, thetheaters, and the taverns for bits of information that might beconveyed in a sentence or a paragraph,or which might be turnedinto a storyof a column or so. Thecorrespondentwas a gentleman,the scavengera pieceworker,oftenpaid by the line or the column-inch. The content of the news was miscellaneous, matching itspresentation.Typographywas the dominant voice of news, andimages were interlopers,useful as respite and also as information,

    1 Kevin .BarnhurstndJohnNerone,"DesignrendsnU.S.Frontages,1885-1995,"oumalismuarterly68(Winter991):96-804; ohnNeroneandKevin .Barnhurst,Visual appingandCulturaluthority:esignChangesinU.S.Newspapers,920-1940,"JournalfCommunication5:2 Spring1995):-43.

    ? Copyright 000 MassachusettsInstitute f TechnologyDesignIssues: Volume16, Number Spring2000 59

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    but always clearlyseparatedfrom text, often by frillybric-a-bracthatindicateda conceptualboundary.

    Themodern newspaper,on the otherhand,has assigned adifferent role to journalistsby encouraginga stanceof objectivityand expertise.Reporters,who were neither gentlemen nor wageworkers,becameprofessionalswhose authoritativeaskwas to clas-sify andassignpriority o events. Modemphotojoumalism omple-ments thatprimary ask of professional eporting,providinga senseof visualimmediacy o go with theformallystructured ext. Inbothtext and image, the modem newspaperrequires he effacingof thepersonaof the journalist,who might have a name (registered n abyline) but who does not have a point of view, a set of values, or(usually) a style of writing.Themodernjournalistand photojour-nalist areexperts, not authors.(Thephotojournalist s sometimesstill a scavenger-a throwback to the Victorian newspaper-althoughthe reporters not.)It often is assumed that photojournalismcame out of thecamera,fully-armored, ike Athena out of the head of Zeus. Thiscertainly s not the case. Contrary o the receivedhistoryin whichall techniquesandstylesof news illustration eadtowardthephoto-graph at the summit of journalisticrepresentation,our previousresearchunderscores the contingencyof photographicstyles andusages.2Thatphotographymightwed permanentlywith news wasnot obviousin the Victorian ra.Itsadoptionorrejectiondependednot on technicalbarriersbut on its usefulnessto theexistingregimeof news illustration,dominated by typography,and its capacityotherwise to expressthe routines of news work.Available echnol-ogy sometimes limited the styles and usages of photography,butthislimitingwas justthat:a limitation. tdid notamountto a photo-technologicaldetermination f theprojectof joumalism.Within helarger regime of news illustration, moreover, photojournalismappeared ardily.Beginning n the 1830s, n EnglandandtheUnitedStates,newspaper and magazine publishersbegan to experimentwith the use of variouskinds of illustrations.Thisexperimentationprecededthe successful ntroductionof photography n theform ofthedaguerreotypen 1839.3Thetechnologiesavailable o illustratorswerenumerousandincludedwoodcuts andwood engravings,vari-ous formsof metalengravings, and lithography.Eventually, hesewere combined with photography.But photography-much as itwas talked about as supremely realistic and unauthored,as anepochal invention, a radicallydifferentand discontinuoustool ofillustration-was used simply as one tool amongmany.

    The key figure in this regime of illustrationwas the artist.Everynews illustrationhadtobe composedandrenderedby an art-ist of one sort oranother-usually eithera sketchartist,anengraver,orboth.These artistswerejournalists, ike the textual ournalistsofthe printerlyand Victoriannewspaper.And they fell into the samecategories-correspondents and scavengers. Theirjobs were the

    2 KevinG.BarnhurstndJohnNerone,"The residentsDead:AmericanNewsPhotography heNewLongJournalism"nPicturingnthe PublicSphere,BonnieBrennen ndHannoHardt,ds.,(Urbana:niversityfIllinois ress,1999), 0-92.

    3 Patricianderson,he rintedmagendtheTransformationfPopularulture,1790-1860(Oxford:xfordniversityPress, 991);ndJoshuaEmmettrown,Frank eslie'sllustratedewspaper,hePictorialress nd heRepresentationsofAmerica,855-1889Ph.D.isserta-tion,Columbianiversity,993).

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    sameas the textual oumalists-to provide ntelligenceaboutdistantandimportantpeople, places,andevents,and to providea fulsomeandengaging miscellanyof deviantgoings-on.

    It is our aimin this article o analyzetheregimeof illustratednews in the United Statesin the period fromthe late 1850sto theassassinationof PresidentMcKinleyin 1901. This period beginswith the establishmentof the first successful llustratednewspapersin the United States,and ends with the full implementationof thephotographichalftone. Culturally, t correspondsto the rise of arealistethos,bothin artandliterature, nd in the social sciences.4njoumalism, t correspondso thegrowthof a senseof literaryprofes-sionalism hatproduced hegreatmuckraking eporters, nd also tothe birthof press clubs,tradeperiodicals,and other nstitutions hatwould supporttheemergenceof theoccupational deologyof objec-tivity.5 n terms of the media system as awhole, the period beginswith a largelypartisannewspaperpressand a largelygenteel rangeof nationallycirculatedmagazines,andends with an industrializednewspaper systemwith an increasinglyroutinizedpatternof newsproduction and a new range of mass circulationpopular maga-zines.6Meanwhile, he readersof theprintmediahadbecome moreand more socializedinto the "landof desire" hat the advertisers nthe media werehelpingto create.7

    In this paper,we look specificallyat two illustratedperiodi-cals,Leslie's ndHarper's hese areeasily the most importantof thegenre. They are similar in many ways: both were printedin NewYork,both were weeklies, both were national in circulation,bothwere establishedin the mid- to late-1850s,and both came of ageduringthe Civil War.Also, as we shall see, bothused similar tech-niquesof illustration orsimilar content.Buttheywere also differ-ent in importantways. Leslie'snsistedthat it was a newspaper,andmaintainedan emphasison breakingnews. Itwas the mainstay ofthe company that produced it, and sought out a large, heteroge-neous readership its circulationvariedfromapproximately50,000to 200,000,with higher peaksfor dramatic ssues, such as assassina-tions, because much of its circulation was in single-copy sales).8Harper'swas published by the nation's leading book publisher.Itwas aimed at a more genteel audience, was more concerned withliteratureand the arts, and recycled its illustrations in its otherpublications, notably novels and a monthly magazine. WhereLeslie's was a newspaper, Harper's tyled itself "A Journal ofCivilization,"a nominationthatit tookseriously.Our comments nthispaperare based on a sampleof representative ssues from eachtaken at five-year ntervals(1856,1861,1866,and so forth).Techniquesof IllustrationNineteenth-centuryprinting found picture reproductionchalleng-ing.9The basic technical difficulty was getting an image onto amaterial hat couldbe locked intoa printing orm along with textual

    4 MilesOrvell,TheRealThing:mitation&AuthenticitynAmerican ulture,1880-1940(Chapel ill:UniversityfNorthCarolinaress,1990); ndWalterBennMichaels,TheGoldStandard(Chapelill:UniversityfNorthCarolinaress,1988).

    5 Michaelchudson, iscoveringheNews:ASocialHistoryfAmericanNewspapersNewYork: asicBooks,1978);ndChristopherilson,TheLaborof WordsAthens: niversityfGeorgiaPress, 985).

    6 Gerald aldasty,heCommercializationofNews nNineteenthenturyAmerica(Madison:niversityf Wisconsin ress,1993);ndRichard hmann,ellingCulture: agazines, arkets,ndClassat theTuMf theCentury(Nework:Verso, 996).

    7 William each, andfDesire:Merchants,ower,nd heRise f a NewAmericanultureNewYork:intage,1993); ndT.J.Jackson ears, ables fAbundance:CulturalistoryfAdvertisingnAmericaNewYork: asicBooks,994).

    8 SeeBrown,rankeslies,Chapter.9 Michael .Carlebach,heOriginsf

    PhotojournalismWashington:Smithsonian,992).

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    material.More than a dozen discrete solutionswere found forthisone problem.Of these,woodcuts and laterwood-engravingswerethefavoritemedia forprintersof news illustrations.Both,of course,required the hand of an engraver.Both also requireda supply ofsuitable wood. Leslie'spioneered methods to meet both require-ments.10The preferred wood for engraving grew in trees whosetrunkswere no largerthan six inches in diameter, oo small for ahalf-pageor full-pageengraving.Leslie's olution was to machinethe wood into uniform blockstwo inchessquare,which then werebolted togetherto form a smooth block of any desired size. Thisallowed fora routinizationof the hand of the engraveras well. Theoutlines of a picturewereengravedon a large compositeblockby ahead engraver,then the block was broken down and the piecesdistributed o specialistengraverswho workedsimultaneously.Thevarious engravershad specific skills-one was good at faces, forinstance,and another at architecturaldetails-so that a complexdivision of laborwas built into this methodology.

    A similar routine existed for the compositionof an engrav-ing. Artistsin the field-sketch artistsand photographers,amongothers-would collect mages.Thena chiefartist n house would se-lect the most appropriatepieces. Some,such as portraitsof individ-ual statesmen,would be engravedfromone image or photograph.Others, ncluding arge-scaledepictionsof events,would be assem-bled from a largenumber of individual drawings, and combinedinto one continuous scene. These sometimes formed two-pagepanoramiccenterspreads,more or less. The chief artistor engraveroften would includea signatureon these, in effectintroducingthechief artistinto the company of editors like HoraceGreeley,car-toonists likeThomasNast, and the pseudonymouslybylined corre-spondentsof majornews organizationsasjournalisticpersonae.

    The process of illustration in these weeklies thus was acollectiveand routinized one. Each llustrationrequired he skilledintervention of several artists, in addition to going through aprocess of editorial selection and, often, composition. The artists'eyes andhands insuredthatthe illustrationwould have clarity,andwould convey a meaningof some sort. Butthis was appliedart. Itsproductionwas mechanized o anextent thatpermittedpredictablemanufacturingschedules, and allowed the (believable) claim toauthentic epresentation.A readerof Leslie's rHarper'souldexpectto see illustrations n each issue on about half the pages, andthoseillustrationspresenting hemselvesas news would have theiroriginin "nature,"hatis, they would have been drawnor photographedat some point fromlife.

    These illustrations, then, were quite a bit like the text thataccompanied hem.Theyalmostneverstoodwithout comment(theexceptionsbeing cartoonsand editorial icons, which were them-selves forms of commentary). Usually the text amplified andexplained the illustration. A typical example is "The Port of0 Brown, rank eslie's,8-59.

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    Genesee, Lake Ontario." 11The picture, by itself, is fairly mute:"Look at the pretty boats!" The text tells you more: "Our beautifulpicture of the Port of Genesee is from an ambrotype by Whitney ofRochester,"meaning it is reproduced from a photograph. Here, andthroughout Leslie's history, a photographer typically was named,whereas a sketch artist rarely was. The photographer had an iden-tity as a technician, we surmise, whereas the sketch artist, as a jour-nalist, was meant to be anonymous. The text goes on to recounthow recent engineering projects, especially the construction of one-half mile of piers, have made Genesee a keyport for Lake Ontariotraffic. "There is here a pleasant and thriving village, called'Charlotte,' which is yearly increasing in importance, owing to itslake position and connection with Rochester by means of a railroad,eight miles in length, and also to the fact that, from this point, thesteamers, forming an international line, arrive and depart dailyduring navigation for Toronto and other Canadian ports." And sothat's what all those pretty boats are up to! This text tells the readerwhat one would see if the illustration could be in color and inmotion-that is, it amplifies the visual experience-but it also tellsthe reader what the picture means. It presents elements that couldnot be depicted no matter what tools were available.

    Often, the relationship between text and picture was revers-ed. In these cases, the picture amplifies aspects of the text, addingemphasis or emotion to what already is a full textual account. Thisis the rare case for the illustrated newspapers. Usually, the paperwas composed on the basis of what pictures were available; rarely,though notably in cases of monumental news such as an assassina-tion, were illustrations found for a specific story. In the above exam-ple, the availability of an ambrotype of Genesee "suitable for engra-ving" drove the content, not any breaking news about Genesee.

    No matter what the specific relationship of picture to text,the two elements were understood in the same way. Both wererepresentations of real persons, places, and events, but neither wasunmediated-both were authored, whether the author had apersona or not. The attraction of news depended on telling a goodstory, anchored in real events to be sure, but not merely reflectingthem. The goodness of the story was in the telling. Text and pictureboth were held to standards based on the facility with which theyadvanced a narrative.

    The regime of illustrated news did not point to photographicrealism or to any other notion of unmediated realism. Instead, itinsisted on clarity and lucidity. The images were expected to bearticulate, not independently of course because the typographic textusually was indispensable, but certainly when amplified or contex-tualized by accompanying verbal reportage. Photographic realismwas irrelevant to this kind of storytelling, a conclusion that issupported by the fact that neither Leslie's nor Harper'shighlightedthe photographic aspect of visual reportage nearly as often as we

    11 Frankeslie'sllustratedewspaper(July5,1856):llustrationn53 and exton54.

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    expected.Engravings hatobviouslywere done fromphotographsusually were not distinguished from others done from sketches.And this was not becausethey were stymied by the technologicallimits of early photography.When the aimwas to presenta grandlandscapeuponwhich humaningenuitytakes on nature thesettingin imageryformany storiesin text, to be discussed later),the longexposure imesrequired orphotographyhardlyrepresenteda limi-tation.Nor would direct duplicationof the photographon news-printnecessarily imit the artist'seye andhand,workingto help thetexttell storiesand makeargumentsand limn characters.Genres of IllustrationIllustratednewspaperspresupposedthat their readers read dailynewspapers. Therefore, hey conceived of their own function asdiscretefrom that of the daily press. The daily newspaperwouldcover breaking news, allowing its reader to monitor the day'sevents. The illustratednewspaper,appearingweekly,would buildon the literacy generatedby the daily newspaper,and allow thereader to have a vicarious experience of distant and importantpeople,places,and events. The New YorkTribune ould tell peoplewhathappenedat Lincoln's nauguration, or instance.Leslie'shenwould give its readersa visual sense of what it was like to be there.In this way, the illustratedpresswas a form of travel literature-apopularform of nonfictionat the time illustratednewspaperswereinvented.Leslie himself acknowledged hisin aneditorial n 1873.12Noting that daily newspapers provided verbal descriptions ofevents,Lesliepointedout thatthese arevisually vague-from suchaccounts"ahundredartists..will producea hundred pictureseachunlikethe others..."Whathis illustratedpaperproposedto do wasto provide an authenticvisual image that fixed in the public mindLeslie'spictureof the event. Therewas some sleight-of-handn thisargument,obscuring (while acknowledging)the artistryof illus-tratednews. Likealljournalism, he project ook its authority romevents "outthere." llustrated ews promised he sort of picture hatone would have come away with had one actually been at theevent-clear, with the force of memory.Readerscould trustthat theimage actually representedthe event because the artist had beenphysicallypresent(even if only after the fact,as was often the casewith breakingnews). Illustrated ournalism hus intendedto inter-vene between readersand the world, and to providethem with anartificialarchiveof memory mages-a primitive ormof total recallof thesortthatcontemporarycholarsascribe o latervisualmedia.13

    Thesubjectsof illustrations hroughout he periodwe stud-ied were the sorts of thingsthata sophisticated ravelermight expe-rience. We might denominate the subjectsbriefly as prominentpeople,the wonders of nature, he builtenvironment,and notewor-thy events. We might further divide the category of events intothose of nationalpoliticalormilitarysignificance-the Battleof Bull

    12 "Illustratedournalism,"esliesAug.23, 1873): uoted nBrown, rankLeslie's, 31.

    13 CeliaLury,rostheticulture:Photography,emory,nd dentity(NewYork:outledge,998); ndSusanMoeller, ompassionatigue: ow heMedia ellDisease, amine,War, ndDeathNewYork:outledge,999).

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    Run, or the assassination of McKinley-and those of more socialinterest-sporting events,forexample.All of these categoriesrepre-sented "real"things. In addition, illustrations often presentedimages that were symbolic or iconographic.Harper'sncluded thecartoonsof ThomasNast,as well as frequentllustrations or fiction-al material. Leslie'sarriedserialnovels in every issue throughthebulk of its career,but these were almost never illustrated.Also,Leslie's arried few cartoons.)And both publications occasionallyfeaturedallegorical llustrations.

    This subject matter was conveyed through a complicatedarsenalof illustration echniques.We have identifiedseven modesof illustration n the two illustratedpapers,here listed roughly inthe orderof theirimportanceover the period:

    * Sketches emphasizing rregular hading, deep shadow asfrom nkwashes, andthe positionrather han the edges offorms;all loosely drawnat first from ife oreyewitnessaccounts,and later fromphotographs,butcontainingsignsof the humanhand,such as smudgingandscribbling),

    * Drawingsor "finedrawings" emphasizingprecisetonalshadingandperspective,drawn muchtighteras a finishedartisticwork,with greaterdetailandsurface inish thatdisguisedovertevidence of the artist'shand),

    * Photographs emphasizing ine detailin alimited rangeofgray toneswith shadingin regular, epetitivepatterns;all ina clean,mechanicalrenderingat first reproducedas engrav-ings, and later as halftones),

    * Cartoons emphasizingoutline rather hanfill,which islimited to relativelysmallareas,andshowinghumanformswith the tendencyto caricature),

    * Editorial cons (emphasizingsilhouetteandshape,ratherthanoutline ortonalvalue,andgiving theimpressionofwoodcut and scratchboardechniques o project he allegor-ical andsymbolic),

    * Maps (emphasizingvarying degreesof line, to show posi-tion,in plan,and sometimes also tonalshadingin ordertoshow what thingslook like,in elevation),and,

    * Technicaldrawings (emphasizingoutline andsurfacecontour,rather han tonalshadingandshadow,with greatdetail at the pointsof humaninterface uch as knobs andhandles).All of these modes appearedin editorial content and were

    particularly ied to specific types of content. Thesketch,for exam-ple, belonged to breaking news but also to fiction. Cartoonsbelonged to editorializing and entertainment. Advertising alsoemployed manyof thesemodes,but favoredtechnicaldrawingsforrepresenting products and the more fully rendered drawings forrepresenting cenesof the consumption,marketing,or manufactureDesign ssues:Volume6,Number Spring000 65

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    QKW- i

    Figure"Cincinnati,hio,"romhearticle, ARailroadleasure-Tripo theWest,"Harper's(July , 1857):opof 428.

    of products. Of course, the tie was not a physical one, as it wouldbecome later. Illustration could appear anywhere, without regard tothe placement of the related text.14

    These various modes did not move in an evolutionarycontinuum from drawing to photography, as one might expect, butwere used side by side in an array. The different techniques comple-mented each other; they did not colonize or displace each otheruntil the end of this period, when photography displayed imperialtendencies. The course of change cannot be summarized as theemergence of photography or the development of photographicrealism-that is too neat and proleptic a narrative. The things repre-sented and the modes of representation shifted over time in acomplicated pattern. Instead of a shift in technique alone, what wediscerned is a shifting notion of subjectivity that accompanies ashifting notion of didacticism, along with a shifting notion of therelationship of the individual to the polity. At the outset, the regimeof illustrated news showed prominent personages as publicsymbols, attending to the grandeur of institutions and the builtenvironment on a ground of natural splendor. At the end, it showedpeople regardless of their position of authority as indexes of ordi-nary life, closely observed in a range of emotional expressions andfleeting gestures meant to reveal an interior landscape of thoughtand feeling.Built vs. Natural EnvironmentsThe built environment was one of the favorite themes of the firstillustrated newspapers. This fits in with a sense of the mission ofillustration to effect the virtual travel of middle-class readers. Onecould tour the great buildings of the world in the pages of Harper'sand Leslie's.Early images emphasized the monumentality of humancivilization (feats of engineering, architecture, and city planning),with people depicted as textures occupying the foreground like thegrass growing around permanent structures. At first, the structuresseem to grow organically out of the natural landscape. In a travel

    14 See,forexample,he llustrationfastatue fNathan ale n504 hatrefersto thestory f its unveilingnHarper's(July , 1891): 94;andnote hat hestory oesnotrefer ack o the llustra-tion.

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    4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~N-I~~~~~~~~~~~~E

    ~~~~~~~~~~ K k~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~57

    77 K'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7

    Figure"Thenaugurationf AbrahamincolnsPresidentf the United tatesat theCapitol,Washington, arch, 1861.[Fromdrawingmade n hespot.]"Harper'sMarch6,1861): 68-9.

    story, "A RailroadPleasure-Trip o the West,"Harper'shows thegrowing city of Cincinnati,Ohio."5Cityscapes such as this one (Fig.1) attest to the permanence of the built environment growing outtoward equality with the overarchinghills or surroundingwaters.Thesimple quantities of space the two occupy in the picture planerevealan interestingplay thatsuggests a hope for growth (and ulti-matedominance)by human constructionsover the naturalworld.

    Even great men were small in relation to the products ofmaterialculture.Theemphasison one or anotherwas accomplishedthroughtechniquesof composition, n which the elaboratevaults ofa ceiling dominate the image showing men in the Congress.16Adramaticexampleof this is Lincoln's naugurationpicture (Fig. 2),with the mass of humanityclearlydwarfedby the Capitolbuildingand flag, which symbolize the republic.17Lincolnhimself is smallerthanthe Capitolstatuaryand some of the closestspectators a pointwe'll return o later).

    A latermoment of celebration or the built environmentwasthe 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, or world's fair.Especially orLeslie's,whose proprietorwas presidentof the exposi-tion board of commissioners,this was an occasion for rhapsodictreatment f the progressof humancontrolover the forcesof nature.The narrative of progress was made to dovetail with the politicalcommemoration hat the expositionenacted-the careerof U.S. rep-

    15 HarperWs(JuIy4,857):28.16 Harper's(December6, 1857): 92-3.17 Harper's(March6,1861):168-9.

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    Figure"New orkity-ThelluminationndProcessionfJuly rd nd th-TheScenenUnionquaremmediatelyfterheFiringftheMidnightignal unromort olumbus.FromketchesyOurpecial rtists.eePage 22,LesliesJuly2,1876):24-5[detailrom241.

    4X=_1Ti t

    resentativedemocracyand the careerof industrialprogressinter-twined. So in one issue, on July 22, 1876, the centerspread(Fig.3)featuresa grandFourthof Julyprocession n which orderlycrowdsof people traverse an urban panorama-Union Squarein NYC-while a later spread of illustrations features the Wilson SewingMachineCo. of Chicago,Illinois(engravingsof the corporatehead-quarters and the factory,done from photographs, and anotherengraving of the exhibit in MachineryHall at the exposition, donefromsketches).Harper'similarlyemphasized thebuildings.'8

    The power of natureemergeslater n the nineteenthcenturyand takes a place as the only equivalentof (and perhaps the supe-rior to) these humanmonuments.From the initialtouristviews ofCincinnati,Ohio, of JeffersonCity,Missouri,and of otherwesterntowns, the imagerybecomes moreexpansive. Consider,for exam-ple, later aerialperspectives,whose acts of consummateimagina-tion show human constructionsmarking the face of nature. Therailroad ystem of Boston (Fig.4) shows a vast landscapecontainedby the system of tracks."9nthis sense,mapsbecome the conceptualtool of empire,and they were a stapleformilitarycoverage as wellas forstories on westernexpansion.

    18 Harper's(July2, 1876):93.19 Harper's(July, 1871,Supplement):

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    Figure"Bird's-Eyeiew of BostonandVicinity , _ShowingheOutlyingowns ndVillagesndRailroadommunications.eePage 38," ~Harper's(July,1871,Supplement):36-7. W-

    Figure"Regattaf theNewYork acht lub,une22nd.-NearingheLightship.eePage276," 1: I1-ILeslie's(July, 1871):73. A5 4N

    I _I

    - t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~tIFigure lljiv \'-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The destructive power of nature over human constructioncomes to the fore in various disasters involving weather and shipsand especially in coverage of the Great Chicago Fire. An artist takesthe aerial view published in the previous week's issue, and obliter-ates much of the city in black billows of smoke interrupted bytongues of flame.20The text exclaims, "The pathetic sketch by Mr.Reinhart, printed on our front page, conveys a more graphic ideathan can be expressed in words of the privations and sufferingsendured...." 21

    A particularly revealing example of change over time instyles of illustration is the treatment of humans in physical activityand sports. Images of annual regattas were a regular feature of theillustrated press and, initially, the mechanisms and objects dominatethe action, with images of the sails against the ocean and sky. Thereare no participants, but spectators look on, and their depiction turnsthe occasion into a social and not a sporting event.22 In the Leslie'sdrawing, "Regatta of the New York Yacht Club" (Fig. 5), the sails ofthe competing boats appear in the background, pictured against the

    20 HarpersOct. 8,1871):008-9,andcompareOct. 1,1871): 84-5.

    21 HarpersOct. 8,1871):01 .22 See, or nstance,heonlookersn

    HarpersJuIy, 1866): 20.Designssues:Volume6,Number Spring000 69

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    -~~~~ ~ ~ -z ..N,-;'.\- 1's:I.1.1:4;T: I N';t6'lli.ll }.114111'I 'T1 1 NN 1 NI 4F S1TIt RI I I. I 1x1'1 V Ii l11'M 11 II.1. U11 \1 11.

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    FigureTop, NewCollegeOxford ight tBeginningofStroke, earingxtremeullReach,"Bottom,Yale rew,With ohnson tStroke,JustAbouto TakeWater," eslie's,July ,1896):opof 28.

    cityscape,while the foregrounds the shoreoccupiedby fashionablydressed ladies and gentlemen.' The spectatorsappearin the exag-geratedand stylized poses of painting,and the engraverhighlightssome elements-such as a pair of handsome,bonneted women-while leaving others only sketchilyrealized.In this case, the relatedtext is devoted almostexclusivelyto a list of the boatsand the timesof theirfinishes.24

    These presentations f the spectators or sport continue, butincreasinglyare accompaniedby presentationsof the human body.Forparticipants, port moves from the action of man-mademecha-nism against the barriersof nature, o the delight of onlookers, andinto another definition in which the human body competes, andperhaps increasingly against not nature but other bodies. Thechange parallels the emergence of the notion of the body as ahuman motor, one of the originating metaphors of modernity.26nLeslie's 896coverage of a rowing team competitionagainst Oxfordin England,"FormShownby Yale'sOpponentsat Henley" (Fig. 6),a series of photos of the rowing techniquesof the various teams areinterleavedwith text to form a detailed commentary.Here,the illus-trationsaremeant to show men in action.27The Civic GazeTheevolving coverage of affairssuch as boat races indicatesa moregeneral shift in the way events were depicted. The change seemsrooted in the formulation of the subject position of the readerorviewer.Initially, ubjectivity akes the positionof spectator.Thatis,images are createdto represent ncidents as they would be viewed

    23 Leslie's(July,1871):73.24 Ibid.,76-7.25 Harper'sJuly ,1891):92.26 AnsonRabinbach,heHumanMotor:

    Energy,atigue,nd heOriginsfModemity(Nework: asicBooks,1990).

    27 Leslie's(July9,896):8.70 Design ssues:Volume6,Number Spring000

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    Figure (top)"Washington,.C.-The naugurationfPresident arfield.peningf theGrandallin heNewBuildingf the NationalMuseum.From ketches yOur pecialArtists. eePage 8,"Leslie's(March9, 1881,Supplement):2-3 [detailrom 31.Figure (right)"Washington,.C.-TheAttack n hePresident'sife-Scene n he Ladies' oomof the BaltimorendOhioRailroadepot-TheArrest f theAssassin. romketchesyOur pecialArtists .BerouagsndC.Upham,' eslie's(July6,1881):32-3.

    J!~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ '

    by a citizen not directlyinvolved, but paying close attention at adistance. These most assuredlyare not ordinaryor common view-ers, but privileged ones who look from among the ranks of bettersociety upon (andwho at times look down on their social inferiorsin the middle ground separating them from) the great men andevents being depicted.2Most often, the faces clearlyvisible are ofsocial peers. Examplesfrom the coverageof the Civil Wardemon-strate this. In the "GrandReview of General McDowell's Corpsd'Armee, etc.,"the soldiers standin an orderedmass recedingintodeep perspective, while leaders occupy the central ground onhorseback.The largest figures are the well-dressed onlookers incasual poses, some of them in admiringclutches aroundmilitaryofficers, heirfaces turned towardthe reader.29

    This privileged subjectivitywas reinforcedby the techniqueof composition.Imageswere composed by sketchartistswho actedlike correspondents. They gathered visual impressions as theywalked around an event, then used them to constructa compositescene. This scene would compendthe various detailedimages thatthe artisthad sketched n suchperambulations.nthe case of depic-tions of groupsof importantmen-for instance,the meetingof theU.S.Senate(describedpreviously)-recognizablefaces seem to floaton a flat surface of bodies and architecturaldetails. Another exam-ple of thisstyle of drawing (Fig. 7), is a Leslie'swo-pageillustrationof PresidentGarfield's nauguralball.-I

    Thispositioningof the subjectas privileged and perambula-torywas well suited to narrative llustration.In theirdepictionsofevents, the illustrated newspapers often combined sketches thatwere temporally sequential into one illustration, allowing for thetelescoping of a sequenceof occurrences nto a single, supposedlyinstantaneousdepiction. Leslie'sdepicted Garfield'sshooting, forinstance,in a two-page illustration(Fig. 8) that shows the look ofsurpriseon Garfield's ace as the bullethit and beforehe collapsed,the look of concernon the faces of bystanders,and the apprehension

    28 See, orexampleHarper's(July,1861):426.

    29 Ibid.,24-5.30 Leslie's(March9,1881):2-3.

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    of the assailant-a temporalrangethat would have coveredaboutaminute of actual time, and never could have been captured by acamera.3" his drawingwas based on the sketchartists' nterviewswith people on the scene;the journaliststhemselves had not beenpresentbut arrived wo hours afterthe shooting.

    The position of subjectivitychanged quite dramatically.Bythe turn of the century, subjectivityfloats in the air around greatevents-a fly on thewall,not connected o anyidentifiable ocial orpolitical subject.The emphasis has moved from a public (beingthosewith the franchise) o a moregeneric "publicview" availableat closer quarters, evealingemotionin the momentandemphasiz-ing the human face and body frozen in action or reaction. WhenLeslie's llustratedPresidentMcKinley'sassassination,he age of thephotograph had arrived.It published dozens of photographsofMcKinleyn action,and of otherfiguresassociatedwith the admin-istration, plus a haunting portraitof the assassin,Leon Czolgosz,behind bars, but there was no attempt to illustrate the shootingitself. The nearest hingwas a shot of the sceneof the shooting,withan X markingthe spot where the deed was done. The viewers ofthese photographscould experiencean emotionalresponseto thedepictionsof human moments,but they could no longer read thepresident as a monumental personage or the image as a storyunfoldingbeforethem, the citizenry,as public witnesses to grandspectacle.FromPersonageto PersonThe shift from personage to person can be seen best in anotherdimension of the pictures: he tenor or mood they convey.This ismost evident in depictions of people. Initially, they occupy thepicture plane as a "personage," hat is, as a relatively fixed set oftraitsthatspringfrom socialclass, race,positionof power, physiog-nomy, style of dress, and personality. The illustrated journalsappearedwhen notions such as animalmagnetismandphrenologywere current;hevogue of illustratedournalism oincidedwith theage of Darwin. The commonsense of the day affirmedthe impor-tance of geneticsandphysiognomy o character,nd it was assumedwithout much questioning (even by racereformers ike FrederickDouglas) that there was a scienceto the relationshipbetween raceandbehavior.Ordinarypeople, then, usuallywere depicted accord-ing to physiognomicstereotypes.32 rdinarypeople, however,wererarely, f ever, the subjectsof portraiture; hey appeared in crowdscenes, usually sketched, or they appearedas the appendages ofmachines and buildings.Portraiturewas reserved forleaders, andto depict them as personages meant something more than mereracialor physiognomic characteristics.

    Thepresidentand other political leaders (and their wives)were personages that moved into view but did not change, theirposes remained stiff and their gestures, if any, theatricalsigns.

    31 Lesfie'sJuly 6, 1881):32-3.32 For nextended iscussion,ee Brown,

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    Figure"EmbalmingheBody ftheDeceased,n heMorningfSeptember0th," eslie'sOct. ,1881):opof 85.

    -.

    Figure0"TheGreat irenChicago-GroupfRefugeesn heStreet.DrawnyC.S.Reinhart.eePage1010,Harper'sOct. 8,1871):over.

    Figure1"William cKinley,residentfthe UnitedStates:DrawnromLife yLucius itchcock,"Harper's(March, 1901):47.

    * !

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    Again, this mode of depiction is not divorced from technique-mostportraits were engraved from photographs, which initially requiredthat the subject maintain a fixed position for several seconds ofexposure time. However, these facial expressions and poses werestiff also because the sitter and photographer arranged them so:more casual poses were technically feasible and were used for lesserpersons. Equally fixed were the accompanying texts, verbal descrip-tions of character, presenting a record of the personage's career andan account of his or her values, allegiances, and characteristics.Fixity was the point-the image was supposed to present theessence, the distilled character, of the personage. Even in sketch art,the brow, nose, and mole of Lincoln are as set as the faces of build-ings presented elsewhere, as can be seen in "Presidents Buchananand Lincoln Entering the Senate Chamber, etc."33 Emotions areformulaic, like the masks of drama and comedy.

    The fixity and materiality of the personage, even the charac-ter of great men, is quite alien to the photographic age. One index ofthis is a series of engravings following Garfield's death (Fig. 9)-rather gruesome depictions of his corpse being autopsied andembalmed.3 No matter how intrusive the camera eye may be said tohave become, such illustrations-so intimate and seemingly uncon-nected to the public interest-are unthinkable today. They relatemore closely to the medieval concept of power invested in theking's body. They could illustrate only something larger than anymere person. Indeed, ordinary people usually appeared relaxed andunposed (Fig. 10), while in the same scene, men of substance tookon theatrical poses.-5

    By the turn of the nineteenth century, the mood had changedutterly, because now even great people were possessed of emotionallives that are fleeting, and exist on a background that is no longer soclearly fixed and monumental. After his inauguration, Harper'sshows McKinley in portrait (Fig. 11), not as the grand personage asin previous presidents' portraits, but in a private moment of read-ing and reflection.- The era that produced Freud and Einstein, in

    33 Harper's(March6,1861): 65.34 Leslie's(Oct., 1881): 5 and92.35 Harper's(Oct.8, 1871): over.36 Harper's(March, 1901):47.

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    which an invisible world came under the gaze of the new sciences,thus found cultural expression in the illustrated press.

    Images meant for amusement or commentary did not followthe same course, remaining largely untouched by the realist ethos.The illustrations accompanying fiction consistently emphasized thecharacters in the stories as characters. Cartoons likewise alwaysemphasized persons, and did not shift from personage to emotionalperson since they remained focused on the realm of satire. InHarper's,an 1861 cartoon called "A Dust-Storm in Broadway" show-ing two figures in vignette37 does not differ that greatly from thevignette in an untitled cartoon from 1896.2The Moment of ChangeThe year 1890 may be taken as a watershed, a moment of change inthe practice of illustrated journalism, in much the same way as itmarked a change in periodical literature more generally. By 1890, anew genre of middle-class, mass-market periodicals led by EdwardBok's Ladies'HomeJournal had embraced a realist ethos, preparingthe way for the great muckrake journals founded in the next decade.Photography was, of course, the picturing tool most congenial to therealism of the new periodical literature. The landmark moment inthe marriage of social realism, journalism, and photography was thepublication of Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Livesin 1890.

    The illustrated journals were caught up in these changes. InHarper's in 1891, people appeared for the first time arrested inmotion (Fig. 12), usually larger than the monuments near them.39Note the slicing off of the rider's horse in the foreground, in clearecho of the fleeting moment as originally visualized in the art ofimpressionism (such as Edgar Degas's A Carriage at the Races of1873). By 1891, the stock regatta image is gone, replaced by an inti-mate view of people inside a boat watching the much-smallerregatta in the distance. People are also the center of imagery meantto cover the inauguration of a cold-storage facility. Interestinglyenough, these changes occur just when type and image begin tohave a different interplay, much more fluid, with type wrappingaround images (an effect that occurred much earlier in advertising).In 1896, the images of battle scenes finally begin to show people inaction; no longer does the coverage focus on the physical objects ofwar, as it did during the Civil War.

    Travel coverage is an especially valuable indicator of theshift to realism. More than any other kind of reporting, it showshow "we"-the "we" of elite, civic society-see the world and, inthe 1890s, what we usually see are faces, costumes, and gesturesfrom faraway places. This focus on surface representation and fleet-ing subjectivity is true of the new sports photos as well, where, aswe have noted, the human figure-sometimes in motion-hasreplaced the equipment as the center of pictorial attention. Even so,sketch art and drawings continued to be used, both for purposes of

    --2~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Figure 2"TheGrantMonumento be Erected nChicago.Drawnby T.de Thumibot. ee Page494."HarpersJuly4, 1891):cover.

    37 Harper's(March6,1861): 76.38 Harper's(July9,1896): 96.39 Harper's(July, 1891): over.74 Design ssues:Volume6,Number Spring000

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    I' I

    II 41'Ii.

    Is

    Figure3."The resident-Electassing hroughheCapitolnhisWayo TakeheOath fOffice," arper's(March, 1901):60-61.

    explanationand as a way of reportingwith a point of view. In short,a changehas takenplace, and it is dramatic,but the old continues ocoexist with the new.

    Coverageof McKinley's wearing-in n 1901 s emblematicofthis shift. The illustrationsare realistic,and his portrait(describedearlier) is not the standard monumental pose but a moment ofcontemplation.A new regime of typographyalso has taken over,with hierarchicalclarityin type (gray text, heads made darker orlarger to "pop" out, and distinctive display type-all elements ofthe emerging modem style). Even the illustrationof the President-elect passing throughthe Capitol (Fig. 13), despite the old way ofshowing the building and the bodies with portrait-heads tuck onthem, has people in motion.40 lthough this is a drawing,neverthe-less, it clearly ndicates that the goal of imagery has changed.

    Meanwhile,in the photographsafter1890,we see an aban-donment of the art of storytelling and a reversion to the lifelessportrait mages of the 1860s.This had been the case throughouttheintroduction of photography in these publications. In Civil Warengravings, hosetaken fromphotographsreproducea verynarrowrangeof grays,their interest ying primarily n theirnovelty,not intheir content. In the Leslie'sand Harper's overage of the GreatChicago Fire,the stunning images are the sketches and drawings.One of these the editors tout (as quoted previously)-despite thepresence of photographson the adjacent page-for good reason.40 Harper's(March,1901): 60-61.Design ssues:Volume6,Number Spring 000 75

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    Figure4."ChicagonFlames-TheRushorLifeOverRandolphtreetBridge-From Sketch yJohnH.Charles.eePage1018.Harper's(Oct. 8, 1871): 004.

    Figure5."ChicagonFlames-Burningf theChamberof Commerce.eePage1010.HarpersOct.28, 1871):topf 1012.

    Consider two Harper'sengravings in that week's issue (Figs. 14 and15), one from a sketch (well to the front of the magazine) and theother from a photograph (both entitled, "Chicago in Flames".41 Inthese examples, the photograph emphasizes precise mechanically-rendered details, producing a composition in which the flames seemincidental, whereas the sketch pits the flames against the fleeingcrowd in a vee composition that uses the buildings in silhouette asthe wedge between the two living flows. If the photos were alwaysthe more artless of the illustrations, then the era of press photogra-phy marked a triumph of artlessness, as well as the demise of anearlier notion of picture-enhanced storytelling. It is evident that theproducers of illustrated journals had misgivings about this adven-ture in naivete.

    Editors understandably questioned and delayed the use ofimages that were clearly inferior in their narrative range. In the 1896Leslie's example cited previously, the Yale rowing competitionphotos once again are not as lucid as the drawings. The same is truein the coverage of McKinley's death in Harper's. The drawings

    41 Harpers Oct.28, 1871):1004, topof1012.

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    capture candid moments, but the photographs have an unskillful,snapshot quality.There is a wonderful retrospective n the sameissue,' showing depictionsof the deaths of LincolnandGarfield. nthe 1865 engravings, people appear as specks beneath the man-made ceilingand draperiesas the casket lies in state,and againasmere texturecoveringthe hills and beneath the treesat theburial.Even the more closely rendered citizens in the foregrounds aredwarfedby the monumentalman-madeandnaturalworld. On thefacing page, reproductionsof the 1881 Garfieldpicturesare muchthe same,with arches,canopies,andhills dominating,but a candidquality is emerging, although tiny details areblurredin favor offocusingthe scene. But the imagesof McKinleydependon photog-raphy and,as a result, revertto olderforms,with small people andbuildings emphasized,but here the old monumentalityis lost, asthephotographrenderseverything n minute, dull, andinarticulatedetail.ConclusionThe new regimeof realismembodied n photographys not a culmi-nation of someprocessof development.Itis a whole new regime nwhich the role of illustration s fundamentallyrecast.Photography,explained n the terms of realist deology,becameunderstoodas thezenithin a long drivetowardtruefidelity, owardthe captureof thereal,unmediatedby humanartistry.Thisimpliedthe simultaneousdemotionof sketchesanddrawingswhich,in thetwentiethcentury,are no longercreditedwith authenticityand instead become mereart. The condition for the rise of photojournalism, hen, was therejectionof the regimeof illustrated ournalism,with its obsolescent(and perhaps too republican)collusion in the explicit artistryofstorytelling.

    Whythe disappearance f theregimeof illustratednews? Itsfatewas not simplydeterminedtechnologically,by the superiorityof photographicreproduction.Thehistoricalevidence cannot sup-portthatinterpretation.To a certainextent,the failureof illustratedjournalismwas brought about by changes in media ecology. Itbecame ncreasinglydifficult or the illustratedweeklies to competewith the daily press.In the 1890s,paperssuch as Pulitzer'sWorld,Hearst's nd the ChicagoDaily News,carried llustrations ike thosein Leslie's ut on adaily basis and more cheaply.Newspapers effec-tivelyabsorbed hefranchiseof the illustratedweeklies. The scale ofnewspapermanufacturingmade it simplerandmore efficient n the1890sfor a daily to printa photo than to create an engravingfromit, justifyingthe investment n photographic echnology.

    Thelargerculturalenvironmentalso realignedthe real withthe technical, obscuring the centralityof human mediation. Wereject he notion thatphotographswere simply inevitable becausethey were more truthfulthan engraved or woodcut illustrations.Nevertheless, along with new ideas about the unconscious and2 Harper's(Sept. 1, 1901):952-53.Design ssues:Volume6,Number Spring000 77

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    aboutthe possibilitythatinvisiblephysicalforcescouldbe "seen"and measuredby machinery,he riseof photo-as-realismdid inter-ferewith the abilityof Harper'snd Leslie'so proclaim he fidelityoftheirsketches. llustratedournalismhad a choice.It couldadhere oart,or it could imitate ts photographic ompetitors.Butadhering oarthad cometo meandivorcingart from the notion of the realand,since its founding, illustratedjournalismhad marriedartistrytoauthenticity.Trapped n this contradiction, he illustratedpapersimitated their more powerful competitorsand eventually floun-dered.

    Whatconsequences low fromthe loss of the regimeof illus-tratednews? As a resultof its marriagewith realism,pressphotog-raphyembraceda notion of reportage hatrequired he effacementof authorship. If photographers simply operate the machineryrevealing reality,they cannot be held accountable for what thecameraexposes.Unlike artistsandauthors,who hold responsibilityfor their vision of the world, photojournalistsare witnesses andbystanders o eventsostensiblybeyondtheircontrol.Thus,the real-ist regime effectively removed any clear lines of responsibility,hiding news work in what has been called the fog of documentaryforce.

    Realism in art welcomed into the canon of imagery thedepictionof ordinary ife, as opposed to greatscenes fromhistory,mythology, and literature-a move that preceded the shift weobserved in the illustratedpapers.Inordinaryparlance, he real,ofcourse, s that whichexistswhetheryou likeit ornot.Thisobduratesense of realismspringsfromnaturalizingconceptionsof its rock-hardsubstantiality-as in Gustave Courbet'sStonebreakersas wellas from its origins as the incursionof the exotic other,the "ordi-nary"(read: he lower classes)ruledinadmissible nto the canonofgreatnessforcenturiesbut therebyrendered ixed and immutable.Journalistic ealism,at the receivingend, projectsan audiencethatcanneitherblamejournalistsnor takeeffectiveactionin the publicsphere.Thus,the regimeof photojournalism ontributes o a senseof powerlessness and fatalism n the face of intractable ocialprob-lems thathas been observedelsewhere.4" ertainlya kindof visualintelligence disappears when readers forget about the authoredartistryof pictures,and succumbto what philosopherscall naiverealism.

    A moreimportant oss was the disappearanceof an impliedmodel of citizenship.The new regimedivides the readeror viewerfrom the world in ways normativelydistinct fromthose of the oldregime.Journalism rivenby narrative arriedalong in its wakethereader,who anticipated sequence, emplotment, and resolution.Realist press photography trades away temporal narrative inexchange for other things, such as immediacy and emotionalimpact. Photojournalism s exciting and startlingbut, by doingmore,it may, n fact,do less to bringreaders nto the storytellingof

    43 Kevin .Barnhurst,eeingheNewspaper(Nework:t.Martin'sPress, 994).

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    news. Although illustrated journalism projected the comfortingbelief that illustrationcan amount to a form of travel,annihilatingtime and space, it also offered vistas of great occurrencesandpersonages.This removeda form of socialdistance,while reinforc-ing the notion of greatness.The distance from the readerwas obvi-ously diminished,and yet those illustrationsof Garfield'sautopsyandembalmingalso reinforced he President'sbody as a symbol ofstate.The viewer became an insiderelevated to the citizen'svantagepoint. Seeingthe Presidentn ordinarymomentsof emotion obliter-ates both social distanceandthe civicposture,while calling forrawsentiment. Thedemise of the regimeof illustrated ournalism husimplies the loss of the republican thosof citizenship.