Photographers > David McLellan
(72) L.583 - Solid tyres for lorries
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (72) L.583 - Solid tyres for lorries |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548712 |
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| Description | Stacks of solid tyres, France, during World War I. The rowed-up stacks of tyres have created a pattern of horizontal lines which dominate the image. The eye is led through the composition by differing heights of the stacks. The soldiers working on the stacks, overseen by the controller, seem to be having a hard time of the height and the weight of the tyres. Solid rubber tyres were invented by the English rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock in 1846, to replace the more bone-shaking iron rims which had been used. This was quickly replaced by the pneumatic tyre on smaller wheel diameters. Larger wheels, however, could absorb more vibration and, as solid tyres were still cheaper, they were used during this period of rationed high demand. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. Motor Transport work in France. Solid tyres for lorries.'] |
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| Description | Formerly a photographer with the 'Daily Mirror’, a newspaper which led the field in pictorial journalism, McLellan was appointed as an official war photographer in December 1917 along with Tom Aitken whose work also features in this collection. McLellan is especially noted for his work capturing the huge scale of operations on the Front. McLellan was one of five official photographers working on the Western Front, for the propaganda department during the last two years of the war. The photographers were driven to the site the authorities wanted them to photograph, which meant that most of their material was also largely censored. This did not, however, mean that the photographer did not get to know the people in the picture. |
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| Description | Photographs by named photographers. |
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| Description | Black-and-white photographs mainly of the Western Front during the First World War. Official British war photographers took many of them for propaganda purposes. Unless otherwise stated, titles are the photographs' original captions. From the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig (1861-1928). The Haig Papers also contain Douglas Haig’s diaries. |
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| Shelfmark | Acc.3155 |
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