Sullivan’s new book examines two enigmas: Timothy O’Sullivan, America’s most famous war photographer, and the landscapes he captured.

There is little information available on the personal life of Timothy O’Sullivan, but you know his work even if you don’t know his name: A Harvest of Death, taken at Gettysburg, is an icon of the Civil War. His images conveyed the destructive power of modern warfare while elevating photography from mechanical process to fine art. In his new book—a blend of memoir, history, and art criticism—journalist Robert Sullivan retraces the route of an American West survey O'Sullivan turned to after documenting the horrors of the Civil War.

Sullivan discusses the work of one of America’s greatest photographers and to what extent the war O'Sullivan documented ever really ended.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Robert Sullivan is the author of numerous books, including, The Meadowlands, A Whale Hunt, and My American Revolution. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, A Public Space, and Vogue. He was born in New York City, worked for many years in Portland, Oregon, and now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship.

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Robert Sullivan © Eric Etheridge