The image as a political issue

[Shishirgano9]

While the same day, the daily newspaper displayed on its front page a photo of English troops storming the battle of the Dardanelles – yet another one. A little further on was an interview with a photographer. He had captured the terrible spectacle of suffering inflicted on Louvain by the Germans.

" It was necessary to preserve indestructible, indisputable proof of all these visions, of all these aspects: it was necessary to photograph ," he said.





The force of truth – presumed – of the image could moj database not be better affirmed. And at the same time, the political stakes of its publication. Based on the maxim that one is never better served than by oneself, the armies created their own photo service in 1915, with around sixty reporters.

Two years later, it was the cinema that came to complete the still image. And in the dark rooms a fictional war was staged with reconstructed battles and exclusively German deaths. But the desire to see a little more truth was the strongest.

Major illustrated magazines launched competitions, offering to " pay any price for photographic material relating to the war of particular interest . "

Some soldiers themselves had "Kodak vest pockets". They documented life in the trenches. Precious testimonies, essential for understanding what this great massacre of men was.