Preview

World War I Photography Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
740 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
World War I Photography Essay
Photo #1: This amazing shot is both dark and hopeful, in my opinion. This picture shows the contrast between a dead soldier and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the picture, the whole surrounding around the cross is destroyed and marvelously, the cross seems untouched and not damaged by the perilous war. According to listverse.com, the author’s son refers to this picture as an “accusation of war”. This picture was taken during the Battle of Somme and was captured by Walter Kleinfeldt.

Our group chose this photo because when we came across this unpleasant photo, we just thought it would be an interesting photo to talk about and was not like the other World War I photos. The other photos are usually about soldiers, their daily life, and life in the trenches. This picture is unusually dark because of the destruction around the cross. The cross is usually a symbol of hope, and it showed how Jesus Christ rose back from the dead. I chose this photo because it symbolizes hope even though the war was a
…show more content…
It shows us how nations would take extreme measures to make sure that they won the war. We chose this picture because it shows how much fighting really took place and how World War I was referred to as the “war to end all wars”.

Photo #4: This picture was taken by an unknown photographer and this shows the soldiers in the midst of a battle. As one can see, the soldiers are running, an enormous cloud of gas behind them. That gas is usually referred to as “mustard gas” which could leave serious effects on a soldier. We chose that photo because most photos are taken while in the trench. This was taken in the heat of a battle, and it shows how destructive weapons of World War I can be. The gas could leave severe effects including blindness, blisters, loss of voice, and much more unpleasant

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this source, it illustrates an image of the many deaths that happened. The lying men around the trenches…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the first half of the 20th century, humanity experienced two consecutive world wars that were among the deadliest in history. This was a new type of warfare that the world had never seen before. It had Napoleonic-style battles but, instead of muskets and swords, they used machine guns and tanks; which produced countless more casualties. This horrible period of tension and war left over seventy seven million people dead and countless wounded or lost. However, the few soldiers that survived were sometimes able to channel their postwar trauma into great works of art that show us the pure truth about war. Two good examples…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Source C shows a group of German soldiers positioned in a trench in northern France. The soldiers in the trench are holding a heavy machine gun and have an advanced gas mask over their faces. This tells me that they are prepared for a gas attack. This photo was taken three years into the war which tells me that gas attacks became more frequent and therefore they felt the need to improve the gas masks to be more prepared. The source is German, and on one hand it is good because it shows us the features of the German trenches and how they are prepared for the attacks and artillery fire but on the other hand it is likely to be staged because the camera is right in front of the machinery so if it was an English source the Germans would have shot the opposition. It is also likely to be staged because it looks more like a whole in a ground than a trench. We do not know the purpose of the source, who produced it, or what it was used for and if there is any other information surrounding it in the museum. Machine guns killed a lot of people in the war but gas attacks also killed many soldiers, there a two types of gas attacks; a chlorine gas attack (turns all the air in your lungs to water, forcing you to drown) and a mustard gas attack (which burns all of your mouth) the soldiers could either have just experienced a gas attack, about to set one off or are preparing themselves for one. The fact that the gas attack method is still being used by 1917 shows it was a useful method and killed a lot of people. Source C has informed me about the use of gas attacks in the trenches in 1917 and it also gives me evidence of other key information about trench warfare in world war one. All though it only shows me the German trench, I can still predict that British trench warfare is similar and therefore it is a useful source.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This picture is drawn by Charles Cundall, and he saw they war live, so it should be reliable, but it is hard to draw during the war…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second piece I chose was created by artist, Alfred Kubin, entitled Die Kriegsfackel (The Torch of War). I chose this piece for several reasons; first of all I find the feeling of it to be somewhat of a stark contrast to the feeling of Beckmann's piece. Kubin was considered a major symbolist artist, who, "…had lost faith in a ‘fresh and joyous war' or in a quick victory."(art-www1.com) Unlike the previous piece the feeling of this piece has nothing to do with excitement or the anxious energetic feeling that Beckmann's piece has. To me, this piece is an example of the influence the war had after the "newness" had worn off. It was Kubin's attempt and denouncing human cruelty mixed with his own growing cynicism towards the war. I find that the sketched lines in this piece do not communicate excitement to me as much as a dark morbid feeling. It is obvious to me that Kubin was attempting to depict the horrors of war in his own symbolist style of art.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The trenches clearly were not a nice place to be and their would much nicer places the troops would of rather been. However Source 9 tells “casualties were low simply because men were in trenches.” This gives the impression that life in trenches was not so bad after all. It explains how the trenches saved the lives of the troops and clearly were an asset to the soldiers. However from my own knowledge I see the trenches to have; scraps of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being unable to wash or change for days or weeks at a time created conditions of severe health risk (and that is not counting the military risks). Vermin including rats and lice were very numerous; disease was spread both by them, and by the maggots and flies that thrived on the nearby remains of decomposing human and animal corpses. This is supported in source 7 where it illustrates the troops “suffered from typhoid caused by lice and were liable to get fungal infection known as trench foot in the frequently wet, muddy conditions.” This supports the view that the British soldier’s life in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War was one of unbroken horror.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between 1860-1865, the U.S. was engaged in a Civil War between the North and the South. It was unprecedented in its use of photography to document the various aspects of war. This picture is the bloody battle of Antietam. The photo was taken by Alexander Gardner displaying the horrific tragedy that occurred at the battle of Antietam. Since the battle was declared over, now the battleground is a place to go and look around at the battlefield. It was a very hard fought battle on both sides, and each General had very good qualities that will be further explained in the body paragraphs below. Speaking of the body paragraphs, they will discuss the photo in more depth and detail about the very gruesome battle of Antietam. Also the articles that…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Photographs can be a very powerful instrument of impact and persuasion. A photograph can say a thousand words. Many times, war photos leave the greatest impact and are image's you remember the longest. Nearly everyone can think of a few photos from each war that left an impression on them. One of the most famous photos from World War II is from the significant victory at the Battle of Iwo Jima.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1944, during World War Two, the US allies set up a plan to take over the mainlands of Europe in an effort to liberate where the Nazis had occupied during that time. This plan also know as The Normandy Invasion or Operation Overlord had roughly a year of planning and training for the soldiers to be prepared for the invasion. The Photo “Into the Jaws of Death” was taken early in the morning during the hours of the Allied Invasion of Normandy. The photograph shows a group of soldiers who are putting their lives on the line and going into extreme combat to help defend the Allied nations. Seeing this photo is visually quite striking. You are able to see the soldiers uniforms, the space between all of the men and the melodic theme of the spectacle of war, and the context of the exposure all provide the audience with a way to create significance or applications for the image, and through these can we understand the importance of the visual and what…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The photograph was taken in action on a battlefield. The Australian soldiers are in trenches. The location is in Pozieres, the photograph was taken on 1916.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Gallant Charge

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In United States’ history, there has never been a battle as influential and graphic as the Civil War (1861-1865). It was a revolution in several aspects, especially in media, becoming responsible for the first great surge of artistic representations during events of its time. Several of these depictions included certain aspects of the war such as the literal battlefield, fugitives and death--all of which is portrayed in The Gallant Charge of the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment. And while some works, like the lithograph, functioned as commemoration for the war, others were meant to disillusion the home front of its supposed glory through the display of the dark reality that…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I pick the picture “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill” because it represents the era the story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” took place in. The plot of Sleepy Hollow revolves around the legend of the Headless Horseman most of the time mainly for suspense and action during Ichabod's encounter and Brom’s exciting tales. The old tale is about a Hessian who has his head carried away by a cannonball during a war (which is most likely the american revolutionary war, since this is what the author Washington Irving has used for the setting for his story). This may seem like it's not relatable to the death of General Warren but in some ways it can be. For example, General Warren was remembered as a Major General in the military…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I felt touched when I saw this image of a fallen soldiers boots next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The image reminded of those loved ones I know that served for our country and it also made me remember just how many life's are lost because of war due to all the names carved into the memorial. I definitely feel the creator is trying to sympathetic to our veterans and all those who served and are serving our country. The creator displays a Purple Heart pin on the worn out military boots below some other kind of medal, which makes me believe the creator lost someone who was injured in war and received a Purple Heart and medal for their actions or may have even lost their life in combat. The image in my opinion brings a lot of emotions into…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A poem which encourages the reader to feel sympathy is “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy. The persona you are encouraged to feel sympathy towards is the war photographer. The poem features a war photographer who tries to deliver the message that suffering is wrong and should be stopped but is made to realise that the people “do not care” and his job is futile.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Photography Essay

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Floria has used many features of visual language which is very appealing to the human eye. In this photograph she has directed into a gothic meaning, with black hail, eyebrows, and clothing, with a touch of red as a highlight. She has used false fingernails which appeals to the audience as her fingernails now fit fight around the cat which adds great positioning to the…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays