The Great War: A Photographic Narrative

Archduke Franz Ferdinand's simple gray tunic trimmed in red and gold and stained with blood is one of the many arresting images in this monumental collection courtesy of the Imperial War Museums archives that marks the centennial of the First World War. In 1916, the British introduced a new propaganda technique of deploying journalists, cinematographers, and photographers to the front to document the heroism of the fighting men; by the war's end most of the other combatants had followed suit. Many of the images here are portrait-style scenes by unknown photographers and servicemen who were assigned official photography duties. The most notable photos capture innovations in warfare: the notorious trenches, the use of mustard gas, and the first deployments of crude tanks and zeppelins. Other images, like those of a little girl crying in front of a derelict piano in a French town and old woman left alone with her cow, are depictions of the war's toll on civilians. The brief narratives that introduce each year of the war are complemented by timelines that document developments in in mass media and technology, war photography alongside the world events. Editors Holborn and Roberts succeed in collecting the many facets of war in this noteworthy catalogue of one of the darker chapters in world history. Photos. (Nov.)