Photography 1914–1918: Between Technology, Propaganda, and Personal Experience

Abstract

With many professional and amateur photographers among the multitude of soldiers enlisted in the First World War, the latter was the first major armed conflict to be extensively photographed. The article presents the characteristic features of Slovenian war photography between 1914 and 1918 as well as discusses different uses of photography, which already became widespread before the war due to the advances in technology and the printing industry. In terms of its distinctive motifs, photography of the war period followed, improved, and changed the prewar examples. Even though it was used for the purposes of war propaganda and subject to censorship, it also provides a poignant insight into the personal experience of war, thus helping official and amateur photographers to preserve the memory of the traumatic ordeal and make sense of it. The period of war also witnessed the development of various technical uses of photography, including aerial photography. Due to its multifaceted nature, photography now constitutes an important source for researching and understanding war.