Not Seeing the Soldier for the Gas, 1918

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I was struck by what I hoped at first was a smudge in the center of this photograph, though I knew better. The smudge was a man, a soldier in a gas mask, nearly completely enveloped in gas.  This is a pixellated view of that lone man in the smoke, derived from a half-tone image, giving the soldier a crystalline-like half-gone vision:

 

This is a detail from the full image, which shows a bombardment and gas attack on a "defensive" position.  This was published in the unblinking photographic history of the war by Hermann Rex, Der Weltkrieg in Seiner Rauhen Wirklichtkeit, printed by Herman Rutz in Oberammergau in 1926.  

I've conducted a number of other such images elsewhere on this blog (mostly in the WWI Photography category), such as the "Runnung Man, 1918" post, below: 

http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2015/10/running-man-1914-1918-.html