Photographers > John Warwick Brooke
(514) D.746 - Scene in a trench where bombs take the place of snowballs
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > John Warwick Brooke > (514) D.746 - Scene in a trench where bombs take the place of snowballs |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548048 |
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| Description | Like some desolate scene from the Arctic tundra, this image shows four soldiers looking out over the top of their snow-covered trench. The way the soldiers are raising their heads above the trench parapet, plus the elevated angle used by the photographer to focus down on the men, indicate that this is a 'staged’ photograph, so perhaps it was not in fact taken in a front-line trench. Even if it was used to show how well the troops were bearing up in the atrocious weather conditions, the weather itself could not be staged. If living conditions in the trenches were bad at the best of times, the combination of frost, snow and ice must have led to a further deterioration in the soldiers' physical and mental health, and caused further outbreaks of illness and disease. [Original reads: 'The snow-clad front. Scene in a trench where bombs take the place of snowballs.'] |
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| Description | John Warwick Brooke, of the Topical Press Agency, was the second British official war photographer to go to the Western Front in 1916. The demands placed on he and his colleague, Ernest Brooks, were heavy. They had to take as many photographs as possible, with as much variety as possible, a difficult task for two men covering an army of over two million. Despite this, Warwick Brooke managed to take what would become some of the most memorable images of World War I. As an officially appointed photographer, Warwick Brooke was assigned to the Western Front to follow the progress of the British Army. During his time there, between 1916 and 1918, Warwick Brooke is estimated to have taken over 4,000 photographs. |
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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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