Picturing the Western Front: Photography, practices and experiences in First World War France (Cultural History of Modern War)

Between 1914 and 1918, military, press and amateur photographers produced thousands of pictures. Either classified in military archives specially created with this purpose in 1915, collected in personal albums or circulated in illustrated magazines, photographs were supposed to tell the story of the war. Picturing the Western Front argues that photographic practices also shaped combatants and civilians’ war experiences. Doing photography (taking pictures, posing for them, exhibiting, cataloguing and looking at them) allowed combatants and civilians to make sense of what they were living through. Photography mattered because it enabled combatants and civilians to record events, establish or reinforce bonds with one another, represent bodies, place people and events in imaginative geographies and making things visible, while making others, such as suicide, invisible. Photographic practices became, thus, frames of experience. Between 1914 and 1918, military, press and amateur photographersproduced thousands of pictures. Either classified in militaryarchives specially created with this purpose in 1915, collected inpersonal albums or circulated in illustrated magazines, photographswere supposed to tell the story of the war. Picturing theWestern Front argues that photographic practices also shapedcombatants and civilians' war experiences. Doing photography(taking pictures, posing for them, exhibiting, cataloguing andlooking at them) allowed combatants and civilians to make sense ofwhat they were living through. Photography mattered because itenabled combatants and civilians to record events, establish orreinforce bonds with one another, represent bodies, place peopleand events in imaginative geographies and making things visible,while making others, such as suicide, invisible. Photographicpractices became, thus, frames of experience Between 1914 and 1918, military, press and amateur photographers produced thousands of pictures. Classified in archives, collected in personal albums and circulated in illustrated magazines, photographs were supposed to tell the story of the war. This book argues that photographic practices also shaped combatants and civilians' war experiences. -- .