The image as a political issue

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Thus on August 8, 1915, in its illustrated supplement, the Petit Journal published the drawing of a soldier, sounding the assault with a trumpet in his hand, his other arm torn off by a shell... Heroic exaltation by an already old technique.



While the same day, the daily newspaper displayed gambling data america 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 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.