JF Ptak Science Books: World War I Photography

World War I Photographs--German Prisoners, Mass Scene, 1918

Original photograph, printed 1918. 9x6 inches.  Good condition. $150

 

This image comes from a collection here of First World War news service photographs,  showing German prisoners being readied for transport home, and dated 20 November 1918.  This group had evidently surrendered just before the armistice was signed, and was sent directly and instantly  to a staging area for transport back to the Fatherland.  The way that many newspapers obtained the war images that they published in their papers was via a semi-centralized pool of war images.  The newspaper would request, say, a photo of German prisoners, and would contact one of these photographic agencies—in this particular case, it was the Central News Photo Service of 26-28 Beaver Street, NYC—and purchase the rights for republication, and then print it in the newspaper along with the story.  In almost every case the photo would be accompanied by a caption mimeographed onto an attached piece of cheap paper, and in this case it reads:  “Waiting to Return Home/a photo just received showing a batch of enemy troops who surrendered just before the signing of the armistice, joyously discussing the coming of peace and the opportunity of returning home to their families.”

I seriously doubt that the copy editor could read the minds of either the photographer or the troops in the photo.  I would imagine that they were definitely joyous about going home ALIVE to their families, but when looking really closely at the picture the thing that seems to dominate the actions of the people is food.  Or cigarettes.  But mostly when looking hard at the faces in the photo, the men just look tired. 

Looking very closely at these types of images has always been fascinating; look close enough, under high magnification, and the large photo becomes composed of dozens of smaller photos.  The whole is an assemblage of vignettes, each in themselves a work of art.

Continuing in a more odd tone, I’m also reasonably convinced that after looking at hundreds of faces in a photo like this that you’ll find a picture of yourself.

I did.  This section is a 3200 dpi scan of a 15x10 mm section, and I am undoubtedly and unquestionably the bald bearded man (one of the few people in the image without a hat) at center-bottom. 

World War I--Women in the War, Vermeer of the Tars, 1918

8x5 inch original photograph, published in 1918.  Good condition.  $150

In England, women were welcomed to the (paid) workforce during the years of the First World War (1914-1918)—their employment in traditionally male positions enabled those they replaced to go out to the front and die for their country.  Thus the women seen here in the News Photo Service Agency photograph (taken in 1918), working at spraying tar in the streets of London, were appreciated, and tolerated.  For women in England the War blasted away the contrivances of formally scheduled employment:  something like 12% of fall women in England were working as servants and house cleaners.   Come the War, women were offered jobs of revolutionary stature in a wide range and variety of work.  The Civil Service employment for women went from 33,000 in 1911 to 102,000 in 1921, and trade union membership rose 160% (357,000 in 1914 to 1,000,000 in 1918 (with men showing a 44% increase at the same time); for the most part, though, employers took advantage of the situation, and the women still generally earned less than half of the salary as comparable male workers did (or the men they replaced). 

When the end of the War came, so did the appreciation for the women replacement workers—there was bitter feelings in the post-war period because of the weak British economy and a scarcity of jobs.  So the women who took the jobs of men to help the country’s war effort and free up hundreds of thousands of men for war service became an atavistic action, “taking” the jobs of men who had gone out to fight for their country. This of course cost many women their jobs, but the damage had already been deeply done to the pre-1914 British world of the sexual politics of business-being-done, though it would take World War II to really ingrain the appearance of women in the workforce into the national psyche.

I've liked this photo for a long time, seeing things differently in it over the years.  It struck me just yesterday that the woman in foreground-right--whose close-up reminds me too of a Madonna, a Mona Lisa of the Tars--looks like a Vermeer character from 400 years ago.  Or at least the position of her body does.

 

Odd Man Out--One Singular Person in a Huge Crowd

Original photograph, printed 1918.  9x6 inches, good condition.  $135

In this photograph, taken of American troops at a ceremony at the cemetery of St. Marie, Havre, France in November 1918, the massive crowd (the largest funeral service held in France) is almost entirely focused on the proceedings--except this one serviceman in front, lathced onto the photographer.

Odd Person Out--Large Crowds and the Singular Person in Photographs

Original photograph, 8x6 inches, 1918.  Good condition,  $250

This remarkable photograph shows the joy and relief of the townspeople of Saudemont, France (20 kilometers south-east of Arras), after just having been freed from German occupation after four years of captivity. 

 
Saudemont had evidently suffered greatly over the four years, and seemed as though the population of the entire town was going ot be removed along with the Germans--but they weren't, and teh town was simply abandoned, found and recaptured by these Canadian forces.

The images of overwhelming joy are (almost) everywhere:

Except of course for the man at the fulcrum of the image (and the woman behind him), who remained, well, stolid:

But so far as everyone else is concerned:

Mundane Images of War Necessities--Found Bullets

 Original photograph, 1918.  8x6 inches.  Good condition.  $225.

 

 

Americans in London, July 4, 1918

Original photograph  from News Photo Service Company, July, 1918.  8x6 inches. Good condition.  $750

This image--from a collection that I've mentioned previously on this blog--shows a group of wounded-in-action American Doughboys recuperating in London on 4 July 1918.  There were at least six of these soldiers aboard this bus, touring, being invited to celebrate their independence day in London, their flag--and a big one at that--draped across the bow of the upper deck of the bus. 

There were be about 204,000 American soldiers wounded and 116,500 killed during WWI, the end of which was in sight at this point, just five months away.  These were some of the survivors of the American share of war casualties.  Almost all other nations fared far worse (see below)

 

WWI Photographs--Uncle Sam's Metal Drive, June 1918

Original photograph, ca. mid-1918.  8x6 inches.  Good condition.  $750

Like its more-famous WWII counterpart, scrap drives during The Great War were also frequently conducted.  This is an original photograph showing just such a thing, depicting two Uncle Sams surrounded by Boy Scouts pulling a large hollow metal sphere--I believe that thin metal scrap would be hammered flat and then molded onto the sphere's frame, though I'm not terribly sure.  I am sure that this is a great photograph. 

    
(The original is available from our blog bookstore.)

and the detail:

 

 

Needles and Threads; Sewing in Battle, 1918.

 Original photograph, November 1918,  7x5 inches, Western Newspaper Union.   $200

 

This fantastic photograph calls to mind the importance of the little things of battle--dry socks, headgear, water, food, scissors.  And of course a good coat in the winter--a good coat that can be kept closed to allow the body to stay warm, or dry.  I mentioned in a post here just yesterday that it was a small thing that may have led to the demise of Napoleon's army in Russia in 1812--the buttons on the overcoats of the soldiers were made of tin, and as tin becomes brittle in severe cold, it is conceivable that the buttons failed and therefore allowed the jackets to blow open much more easily than normal.  Little change that has an enormous impact.  

This photograph--an official French photo published by the Western Newspaper Union in November 1918--shows a group of French telegraphic soldiers, taking a break, and mending their clothes.  The original text for the photograph (below) points out that their uniforms were torn and made shabby by continuously running themselves up and down telegraph poles.  It is important to keep yourself fit and fed and your uniform in good order, so they calmly awaited the repair of their uniforms y the one man with a needle and thread. 

 

 

Exhausted and Captured--an Extraordinary Photograph, 1918

Original news photo service image, 8x6 inches, 1918.  Good condition. $950

In this image here we are introduced to a small group of captured German soldiers displaying a wide range of emotions over a wide range of faces. 

There were over 8 million soldiers taken prisoner during WWI, that in addition to the 21 million who were wounded and the 9.7 million killed:  38 million.  Plus 6.8 million civilians who were killed: 45 million.  And the numbers for civilians wounded are just, well, not reliable, as they were not really collected, or collectible.  At the end of it all, there were probably between 50 to 75 million soldiers and civilians killed or wounded or taken captive during the war...not including civilians who were killed by the hardships or starvation caused by the conflict.  Big, big numbers. (AN earlier post here looked at the population/percentages of these losses, here). 

 

Detail: this shows struggle and age in a face that I reckon to be a mid-teen's, a child's face, hardened baby fat.

Detail:the older man isn't much more so, just beaten, exhaustion.

Detail:they look defeated and concerned, though the middle guy (who doesn't seem to quite fit in with the rest) looks as though he may be relieved. Maybe not.

 

In a Trench, in the Damp and Cold, at the Front, 1918

Soldier in trench, walking, damp and cold.  1918. 7x5 inches.  Original image from a new photo service agency.  Very good condition.  $500

Perhaps one of the worst inventions in the history of warfare was The Trench. Millions of men were wounded or met their ends while defending one, or attacking one, or being in-between two of them.  Hundreds of thousands of troops spent months charging back and forth between opposing lines, the ground over which they fought made uninhabitable for almost any form of life. Cold, wet, bad.

 

 
Here's another original photograph made by the Western Newspaper Union Photo Service, as a "British Official Photograph"  (with the "British" part penciled out and replaced by an unknown hand, "Italian"),  The photo agency supplied a caption for the image (that was supposed to have been used by the newspaper or magazine that published the picture) as follows:

 

 

And the detail: