Photographers > David McLellan
(59) L.558 - British troops fixing barbed wire to racks which are used to protect our trenches
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| First World War 'Official Photographs' > Photographers > David McLellan > (59) L.558 - British troops fixing barbed wire to racks which are used to protect our trenches |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74548682 |
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| Description | Barbed-wire rack production, France, during World War I. The jumble of wire and wood across the bottom, surrounding the soldiers in the scene makes for an arresting image. Each soldier is trapped in an narrow lane of mud, wearing coats and gloves to protect themselves from the barbs. There is a great sense of focused work and activity in this scene, even though some of the soldiers have stopped to look at the cameraman. Barbed wire was invented in the American mid-west by Joseph Glidden in 1874 to control livestock movement. It was soon discovered to be an effective weapon against foot soldiers, however and during World War I, 'concertina wire' was used against both troops and vehicles. [Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. British Troops fixing barbed wire to racks which are used to protect our trenches.'] |
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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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