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This photo of the US Capitol being built seemed fitting this week. [Wood, John, photographer. West front of Capitol, vii, peristyle complete. Chesapeake Maryland Washington D.C. Ohio Canal, 1860. July.]
Which, of course, led me on a bit of a rabbit hole. John Wood (1838-1901) was the U.S. government's first official photographer. He was hired in May 1856 by Montgomery C. Meigs (who also sounds like a badass, click on his name to read more about him!), the Architect of the Capitol, to take photographs of building projects in the Washington D.C. area. Wood was a "photographic draftsman" for the U.S. Capitol expansion project from 1856 to 1861, mostly taking photographs of architectural drawings. [Note: Make the most of a boring job, especially if it gives you a front-row seat to documenting history.] He went on to photograph The Civil War, before running a studio in NYC for 40 years. If you’re a nerd like me and want more, the Library of Congress has a detailed video.
The photo on the left above is the very first presidential inauguration that was photographed (1857!), I love the blur from the four-second exposure. The photo on the right was from Lincoln’s first inauguration, four years later, and it had this amazing footnote to it: Photograph shows participants and crowd at the first inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln, at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. Lincoln is standing under the wood canopy, at the front, midway between the left and center posts. His face is in shadow but the white shirt front is visible. (Source: Ostendorf, p. 87) "A distant photograph from a special platform by an unknown photographer, in front of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., afternoon of March 4, 1861. 'A small camera was directly in front of Mr. Lincoln,' reported a newspaper, 'another at a distance of a hundred yards, and a third of huge dimensions on the right ... The three photographers present had plenty of time to take pictures, yet only the distant views have survived."
Life Magazine has a great post with rare and classic (yet more recent, 1933-1969) inauguration photos but I particularly loved these words:
Will any future president ever write and utter more powerful words than those spoken by Lincoln — and addressed, unambiguously, to the secessionist Confederate State of America — on the eve of the Civil War?
“I am loath to close,” he said at his oath-taking in March 1861. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
With Trump’s inauguration sandwiched by snow and bitterly cold temps, it’s been a week that’s felt more like a year here in DC. Tuesday and Wednesday I had a headache and a stomachache, that my wife thinks might have been a virus the boy brought home from daycare, and that I feared was worse — existential dread.
But as David Lynch would say, “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.” In that spirit, here are 5 things I was looking at and loving this week:
David Lynch’s impact on photography was deep and visceral. On a related note: 13 songs that helped us step inside David Lynch’s dream worlds. #RestInPower
How 27 filmmakers came together to make Coldplay’s epic, sprawling video for 🌈
You know JayByrd Films, the team who flew their FPV drone through a bowling alley for that epic viral video (that you must’ve seen!)?! Lately, I’ve been seeing their work everywhere, and they’re at it again with a look at the White House Christmas like you’ve never seen before. Love the BTS, too.
Please let Flashes be the thing that replaces Instagram for all of us.
I was recently reminded of this relatable and relevant scene from The Newsroom.
This is excellent!