The First World War...in colour
Think of the First World War, and many profound images spring to mind. But a century after that terrible conflict began, we are all too used to seeing the heroism, the suffering and the sheer banality of the weeks spent in sodden trenches recorded solely in black and white.
Clockwise from left: The French airship Alsace was downed on 3 October, 1915, near Rethel, France. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand; a British ambulance, 1914. Photographs by Jules Gervais- Courtellemont; the devestatin of Verdun, viewed across the river Meuse
Surprisingly, however, a few pioneering photographers, such as Jules Gervais-Courtellemont and Hans Hildebrand, were attempting to capture the war just as they saw it – in colour. Employing newly developed autochrome techniques, their images, now published together in a new book by TASCHEN, bring the war a fresh urgency.
Clockwise from top left: a motorised gun carriage with an anti-aircraft gun, Verdun, 1916. Photograph by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont; German soldiers pose in a concrete trench. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand; a British Mark series tank in Peronne, near Amiens. Photograph by the American Committee for Devastated France
Because the technique required long exposure times, many of the shots are of relatively static scenes. But in this centenary year, they also make them seem familiar, as if we, too, were standing there among the men and machines that played a part in ‘the war to end war’.
Left: German soldiers in a trench canteen. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand. Right: Victory celebration at the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs- Elysées, 14 July, 1919. Photograph by Léon Gimpel
The First World War In Colour, by Peter Walther (TASCHEN, £34.99)
Clockwise from left: The French airship Alsace was downed on 3 October, 1915, near Rethel, France. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand; a British ambulance, 1914. Photographs by Jules Gervais- Courtellemont; the devestatin of Verdun, viewed across the river MeuseSurprisingly, however, a few pioneering photographers, such as Jules Gervais-Courtellemont and Hans Hildebrand, were attempting to capture the war just as they saw it – in colour. Employing newly developed autochrome techniques, their images, now published together in a new book by TASCHEN, bring the war a fresh urgency.
Clockwise from top left: a motorised gun carriage with an anti-aircraft gun, Verdun, 1916. Photograph by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont; German soldiers pose in a concrete trench. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand; a British Mark series tank in Peronne, near Amiens. Photograph by the American Committee for Devastated France Because the technique required long exposure times, many of the shots are of relatively static scenes. But in this centenary year, they also make them seem familiar, as if we, too, were standing there among the men and machines that played a part in ‘the war to end war’.
Left: German soldiers in a trench canteen. Photograph by Hans Hildebrand. Right: Victory celebration at the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs- Elysées, 14 July, 1919. Photograph by Léon Gimpel The First World War In Colour, by Peter Walther (TASCHEN, £34.99)