Secret images of our Diggers at war
A COLLECTION of 151 candid World War I photographs taken by Australian Diggers will be displayed for the first time in 80 years at the NSW State Library this week.
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A COLLECTION of 151 candid World War I photographs by Australian Diggers will be displayed for the first time in 80 years at the NSW State Library this week.
Photos in the Colour of Darkness exhibition were taken at Egypt, Gallipoli and the Somme, where cameras were officially banned. It was the first war photographed by soldiers on the ground.
Though the identity of soldier-photographers, and their subjects, are unknown, the exhibition includes work by Australian war photographer Frank Hurley. The photos were likely taken on compact Kodak-brand vest pocket cameras, sold from 1915 to 1926 and marketed as the “Soldier’s camera”.
Curator Elise Edmonds says the cameras folded flat, with a pullout spring-loaded lens, and were likely bought before soldiers left home to take images of their “great adventure”. “Photography by soldiers was banned on the Western Front, but the rule was widely ignored and easily disregarded,” Edmonds says.
Originally published as Secret images of our Diggers at war
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