Photographing the Fallen: A Brief History

Gulf War I
On Feb. 17, 1991 — less than a month after the coffin-photography ban was implemented — Private Robert Talley became the first U.S. soldier to lose his life in Operation Desert Storm, killed when his Bradley fighting vehicle came under accidental fire from U.S. Apache helicopters. "Not one drop of drop of oil is worth the blood my grandson shed," his grandmother, LuAnne Monroe, told Newsweek. Here, Army soldiers carry Talley's flag-draped coffin at his funeral in his hometown of Newark, N.J.

• 90 Years of Battlefield Portraits
• Why Pictures of Soldiers' Coffins Are Necessary