Photography, History: History, Photography
1 total work
In contrast to British soldiers serving in the First World War, where photography was restricted to 'official' photographers, many ordinary German soldiers took cameras into the battlefield and photography became an active pastime throughout the war. The convergence of new camera technologies and a vast network of communications between 'home' and battlefield, by way of the 'real photographic postcard', allowed soldiers to record their intimate journeys and experiences through the war years. In harnessing the immediacy and cultural potency of photography they were able to author and participate in the materialisation of memory. But in counter-point to the usual imagery we have come to associate with the muddy brutality of the Great War, critical examination of these photographs represents and reveals a different war. In between the battles, soldiers engaged in hobbies, playful pastimes, created 'home-from-home' and took photographs of each other and their surroundings. The photographic practices of the German soldiers show the ordinariness and detail of life in the midst of war and in doing so implicates vernacular photography as an integral feature of the First World War, at least from a German perspective. This book examines these photographs as both communication /dissemination devices in both the historical sense and as neglected /disconnected heritage objects that speak to contemporary themes and wider narratives of navigating conflict. In centering the role of photography the book draws upon previously unpublished photographs to explore a remarkable humanity and intimacy that sits in counter-point to the usual narratives of the Great War.