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Haunting images from WWI

seagreen

seagreen

New Member
Remarkable photos! I think the ones from Ypres are the most haunting, probably because they seem to be the most clear and detailed.
 
Thank you for the link. These truly are haunting images, captivating yet so very difficult to look at. The uneasy feelings these images bring up in me almost make me glad that my memories of the Great War are so hazy, even though it is the life I feel most connected to at present. I'm not yet sure if I'm ready to remember the full horrors of the War.


I saw some images on a website a while back, colour photographs taken on both sides. If I can find the links I will post them here.
 
Color film did not exist until about 1938. Are these hand painted over black and white photos you are talking about? That's what they did with color postcards in that era.
 
These are true colour photographs, not tints. Colour photography was initially experimented with in the 1850s, but was mostly unsuccessful. By the 1890s, experiments were being conducted with the three-colour process, where three glass-plate negatives were taken through red, blue and green filters. When combined, the three negatives combined to create a colour image, in much the same way as our eyes contain cells receptive to green, blue and red light, which combines to give us colour vision. However, the process was incredibly expensive, and only used by those who could afford it (in these cases, state-sponsored war photographers). The cost meant that the vast majority of photographs taken at this time were in black and white, but some were tinted to give an 'impression' of a colour photograph, without the associated costs.


So, although colour film did not exist at the time, processes to produce a colour image using glass-plate negatives did. As an example, this photograph was taken in 1911 using the three-colour process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rgb-compose-Alim_Khan.jpg
 
Early experiments with color television were the same way. I read where they tried using three color filters on rotating wheels. However, RCA (which owned most of the American patents for radio and television) decided to go with the electronic system which would be cheaper over the long haul.
 
Amazing photos, very haunting and sad... My late paternal grandfather was a veteran of WWI. He was in the US Army.
 
It always amazes me to see these things in color when I'm so used to seeing them in black and white. It makes it more, I don't know, visceral, more real. In black and white, there is a wall that seems to filter out the reality of things for me. You know, this was way back then, "somewhen" else. In color, it's more like "Oh my God, this could have been just yesterday!"
 
Does anyone remember seeing food ads on black and white TV? I think it was hard to make people hungry looking at food in black and white.
 
I've seen the ads, but not as a contemporary viewer. They were usually on TV shows about classic ads. (Those old car ads really made me appreciate the modern nonsense about cars in ads!)


I heard that when movies went mainstream with color, special effects artists groaned. They used to be able to get away with ketchup or motor oil to depict blood. Makeup artists also had their work cut out for them, as color is a less-than-forgiving medium!


These days, however, they can run a B&W photo through a program and it can estimate color tones based off of the greyscale equivalent. It's pretty awesome, but if you stood a digitally colored print next to an authentic color print, the difference is fairly noticeable. You just can't truly replicate an analog world in a digital format because reality is made up of more than just 1's and 0's!
 
Thanks for posting this. As 1914 approaches we'll be seeing more stories and pictures. Mostly British, I think. Most Americans today are oblivious to the Great War. Who knows, maybe I'll see my former self in one of them.
 
There are 4 years worth of activities planed across the UK to commemorate the Great War centenary. Argonne, maybe the centenary is a chance for more Americans to learn about the Great War and the part they played.
 
argonne1918 said:
Thanks for posting this. As 1914 approaches we'll be seeing more stories and pictures. Mostly British, I think. Most Americans today are oblivious to the Great War. Who knows, maybe I'll see my former self in one of them.
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Whoa! Channeling a PL, are you? LOL! :laugh:


WW1 was barely mentioned in the text books when I was in high school, and WW2 got a couple of paragraphs. Vietnam protests got an entire chapter with that war being just background flavor. My husband and I both look forward to more information about WW1.I've read a few books (large books that aren't really meant to be read but look good sitting in your living room), but I want more!
 
I've been a huge Tolkien fan since 1965, and even though he disavowed the idea that the two World Wars influenced his work, many people feel that the "Dead Marshes" came right out of his experience of trench warfare during the Great War. I often think how difficult it must have been for a populace that had endured World War I to be plunged right back in. Hopefully, we'll all become more educated about what they endured.
 
These are wonderful links everyone, thank you so much! I thought I'd share this wonderful photo of my great grandfather holding a tiny kitten on his lap during WWI!


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You know, I feel as though it's a lack of information about WWI in my previous life that makes me so desperate to find out everything I can in this one. Obviously people back home were shielded somewhat from the horrors of war and most death notices were kindly lies. Over the past few months I've found myself desperately looking for information that I'm not sure I really want to find! Looking at diaries and battalion notes, flicking through photos of the trenches. I'm even contemplating a trip to France. It's the oddest compulsion. I keep thinking "if I was inventing all this then surely I'd have become bored with it months ago!"
 
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Shiftkitty said:
WW1 was barely mentioned in the text books when I was in high school, and WW2 got a couple of paragraphs. Vietnam protests got an entire chapter with that war being just background flavor.
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Both of my grandfathers were WWI veterans. My mother's father would talk a little about it. He had a large group photo of his regiment before they shipped out to France. He also had a large photo of the coal fired ship that brought him home in 1919. We also have a photo of my dad's father in his WWI uniform before going to France. Yes, many "baby boomers" are still hung up on Viet Nam and the "evil" Lyndon Johnson. Now that they are rapidly approaching Medicare age ask them if they still hate LBJ. Without LBJ there would have been no Medicare or Civil Rights Act in 1965. Obama should get out the official portrait of LBJ and hang it in the Oval Office. It's also interesting that the Viet Nam protests ended at the same time the draft ended. Maybe there was a connection?
 
What a wonderful photograph Whippoorwill, thank you for sharing it :)

You know, I feel as though it's a lack of information about WWI in my previous life that makes me so desperate to find out everything I can in this one.
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I've had something similar. When I started researching my Great War life, I realised I just couldn't get my head round *why* we went to war. I think in that life I went because King and Country asked, without really understanding the reaons behind it. It's taken a while, but one book has finally answered my questions.
 
Helz, You didn't tell us the name of the book! The "stated" reasons for World War I are nearly incomprehensible. Why would the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand drag the world into war? We recently found out that my husband's grandfather served. It was never spoken of in the family. I've gotten very interested in that war, and watch every documentary I can find about it.


Thank you for posting the photo, Whippoorwill. It's wonderful that you have it. I understand your need to visit the trenches. That war took so much away from you, and altered the course of your life.


It seems like the Spanish Influenza epidemic that followed the War would trigger memories. Maybe a new thread?
 
If you read the history leading up to the Great War you will see that the European countries had an "arms race" starting around 1890. The continent was a powder keg ready to be set off. The Kaiser wanted to prove how competent and powerful he was. Probably wanted people to think he was the new Bismark. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, a member of the Austrian-Hungarian royal family, gave the Kaiser the excuse he had been looking for.
 
Whippoorwill said:
Over the past few months I've found myself desperately looking for information that I'm not sure I really want to find! Looking at diaries and battalion notes, flicking through photos of the trenches. I'm even contemplating a trip to France. It's the oddest compulsion. I keep thinking "if I was inventing all this then surely I'd have become bored with it months ago!"
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When I first tried doing self-regressions I found I would block on my last previous life. I later learned that many people block their most recent past life if it involved trauma, etc. Dying on the battlefield would certainly count as that.
 
I will have to locate the stuff my late-grandfather's batallion made up during one of their reunions. Its a almost a day by day account. Hope I can find it and if its not in to bad shape, get it scanned...Grandpa was with artillery..he took care of the mules used back then to haul the big guns around. So he was right there..


*** UPDATE***


FOUND IT! Battery F, 320th Field Artillery, 157th Field Artillery Brigade attached to the 80 & 82nd All American Divisions during WWI. The paper this is on is old, dark mustard color. Have to figure out the best way to scan it.


Aragh..Printed on front and back too... ((pounds head on wall))
 
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Try scanning in different formats. Mainly .jpg. Scan as a document then photo. If you send me the raw scans, I can adjust color, contrast, etc. You can email me if you want.
 
Sorry BriarRose! Was quite late here and was quite tired when I posted that!


The book was 'The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One' by Miranda Carter. Argonne is right, a lot of it came down to Kaiser Wilhelm, who had a right temper and felt keen to prove himself, although his ministers all seem to have been a bit war-hungry, and in the end he couldn't stop them. The murder of Franz Ferdinand gave the Austrian Empire good reason to attack Serbia, encouraged unofficially by Germany, which angered Russia causing them to mobilise forces, which meant Germany had to implement the schlieffen plan to overcome France before attacking Russia, which meant marching through Belgium to attack France, which meant the UK had to weigh in to side with France and to defend neutral Belgium. The book showed how the three cousins (George V, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas II) were in constant contact as all this was brewing, trying to stop all-out war, and ultimately failing.


The book is worth a read if you can get hold of it, just for the road to war chapter alone. It shows how if a few things had been different, there wouldn't have been world war, but the machinations of certain elements within the various European governments pushed it inevitably forward.
 
Whippoorwill


Thank you for sharing the photo. What a treasure! The very stern and tough looking solder gently cradling the kitten in his lap.
 
helz bels- Your summary reminded me of the title of the first chapter in a book I read called "The Great War" (American Heritage Library, 1974 I believe). The title of the chapter was "Stumbling Towards War".
 
Whippoorwill - Thanks for posting the picture, it’s truly a striking image.


My step-father was in the cavalry in WW1 - horses! That seems so archaic now! I have some pictures and postcards he’d sent to his mother before they went to the Front. They give a tiny and very human look into that moment in time. His family was fairly well-off and he has such a jaunty and carefree air, “here’s another picture in our uniforms, don’t we look perfectly vile!” “Forgot my socks, get the maid to send them here, would you, please, dear Mater!” He came back with lung damage, lost a brother and a cousin.
 
WWI caused the premature death of Teddy Roosevelt in 1919. TR, you may remember, was a hero of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Because of the fame of the "Rough Riders" and Teddy's constant war stories, his youngest son Quintin decided to be a fighter pilot in the war. Unfortunately the Great War was nothing like the Spanish American War. WWI fighter pilot life expectancy was about 1 or 2 weeks. After Quintin was killed Teddy blamed himself for encouraging him.
 
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