Lincoln and Custer brought to life: Artist takes American Civil War photographers' portraits and turns them into colour animations
Incredible images from the American Civil War have been brought back to life in a series of startling colour animations.
The photographs taken by the esteemed 19th-century American photographer Mathew Brady on his four lens camera would have allowed him to take more pictures and stay ahead of the competition.
Colouriser Matt Loughrey, from Ireland, spent hours examining a catalogue of Brady's negatives, that had originally been dismissed as duplicates, to discover that there were minute difference between each set of four.
Mr Loughrey colourised the images before overlaying them to create the impression of movement.
Among Brady's famous pieces was his portrait of American President Abraham Lincoln before he became the 16th President of the United States in 1861.
Abraham Lincoln (left) was pictured by Mathew Brady in a statesman-like pose before the Civil War broke out. The photograph helped paint an image of him as a future contender for the Oval Office before he finally became the 16th President in 1861. Cavalry Commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars George Armstrong Custer (right), was a prominent figure in the Union army who became known for his foolhardy characteristics. He entered the Civil War as a second lieutenant before leading the Michigan Cavalry Brigade
Original images would appear as four photographs on one glass negative and had been dismissed as duplicates. However it soon became apparent to photographer Matt Loughrey that the duplicates were in fact ever so slightly different
Now brought back to life, the fascinating images from the America Civil War (1861-1865) reveal the subtle movements made in each shot by each of the historical figures Brady was able to picture.
Mr Loughrey, who couldn't believe his discovery of Brady's work, finally completed the project around three months ago.
He said: 'It took days to colourise them.
'In my opinion, Mathew Brady is one of the greatest photographers from the 19th century and when you look at his photographs they are phenomenal.
'Brady didn't take the images to animate them. They were a time building exercise and made to look like he had taken lots of pictures at once.'
After John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Sergeant Boston Corbett (left) was sent to capture the assassin and bring him to justice. He later found Booth inside a barn and decided to shoot him in the neck. Anna Surratt (right) was the daughter of Mary Surratt- one of the co-conspirators involved in Lincoln's assassination. After his death her mother was convicted of being part of the conspiracy to kill the President and hanged
General James Garfield (left) was made 20th U.S. president in 1881. He died in the same year after he was shot by an assassin. During the Civil War, General Garfield fought for the Union and went on to represent his home state in the U.S. House of Representatives. James Hepburn Campbell (right) was US congressman and delegate to the 1844 Whig National Convention. After the Civil War broke out he also joined the Union war effort. He was appointed as United States Minister to Sweden in 1864 by President Lincoln
William Tecumseh Sherman (left) was made colonel of the 13th United States Infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War. He remained a soldier until the war was over and moved up to the rank of lieutenant general. General Ambrose Burnside (right), born in Indiana in 1824, is best known for being the major general of the Union army in the Civil War
In 1845, photographer Mathew Brady, who owned a portrait studio in New York, started to take pictures of well established figures in society including Edgar Allan Poe, and James Fenimore Cooper.
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the esteemed photographer decided to capture the war's impact through photography and became a pivotal figure in war photography and in capturing generals involved in the American Civil War.
Among his famous pieces were his portraits of American President Abraham Lincoln before his nomination for the Republican Party candidate in 1861 and Cavalry Commander George Armstrong Custer.
The portrait, which captured Lincoln in a statesman-like pose before the Civil War, helped present him as a future contender for the Oval Office.
Mr Loughrey added: 'In my opinion Mathew Brady inadvertently created a recipe for parallax animations and it has enabled his civilian and army subjects to be brought to life like never before.'
