General Sir Douglas Haig introducing General
Joffre to Lieutenant-General Sir Pertab Singh. |
Photography had become a consumer item decades before the outbreak
of World War I. Documenting an event was just as natural (and
important) then as it is now. Magazines were full of pictures--had
been for years. Photography was used to document all the incidentals
of daily living. It was used to document events both great and
small. It was also used in this conflict like no others previous
as a tool of sometimes absolutely effective propaganda.
Not suprisingly then there are a large number of photographs
from the Somme Battle. Some are so well known--the image of a
platoon going over the top--that they're a short-hand way of representing
the entire conflict. Some were published in a book and never seen
again. They include both the living and the dead, scorced earth,
captured weapons, trenches both clean-swept and blown to bits.
Already over a hundred images have been scanned. More are coming.
The intention is to put these up along with captions and a coherent
means of navigation.
