war Archives - Ghosts of Time

Photograms of the Year 1945 – Takes to the Skies and Goes to the Dogs

1945 and the end of the war. Photograms of the Year has this to say:

“Photography in this country during 1944 tells a tale of difficulties, distress and tragedy, and of valiant and vigorous reaction.” It goes on to list some of the people who have died as a consequence of war including F.J. Mortimer, long time editor of Photograms of the Year.

The two photographs above reflect something about attitudes to war. Both “Warrior of the Stars” and “Spitfire Fighter” are undoubtedly wonderful photographs but do they reflect the true nature of war? Elsewhere there is a portrait of a naval officer but nothing else connected to the war. As before I’m surprised to find nothing of a documentary nature about the war. Considering Lee Miller was photographing much more graphic war images, for Vogue no less, the omission seems hard to understand.

When you note there are as many images of dogs in this edition of Photograms as there are of war it makes the omission of more military-related material seem even more odd.

Can you spot the “gentle satire of this graceful picture” entitled “Victorian Vogue?” I’m not sure that I can.

This time around the nudes include “Pleasant Reflection” and ” The Reading Girl.” Commentary notes that “Miss Mason would have made an even better picture if she had confined her subject to the reflected figure … the reflection has qualities of grace, charm and gaiety.” And clearly you should not be looking at the Reading Girl’s breasts but “the dark curtain repeating the dark tone at base of picture, the lines of shadow on the divan on which the model is sitting and the suggestion of shining sunlight through the window.” (Yes, I am having my cake and eating it too!)

I’ve been posting about the series of Photograms of the Year in the order in which I have acquired the volumes and there will be a good case to consider the chronological progress of photography if I ever complete the collection.

Photograms of the Year 1941: but Don’t Mention the War

It’s the middle of the war and this photograph is the only one in “Photograms of the Year 1941” related to wartime. Everywhere else it’s business as usual. An introduction was added after the volume was assembled and includes the following: “The fact that it includes practically no photographs of warlike subjects is an indication of the place that real picture-making holds in the hearts of the people who practice it. Camera records of various phases of the war at home and abroad may be left to the Press photographers whose business it is, through the illustrated papers and the newsreels, to show the world realistic details of what is being done to the world under arms.”

I take this to mean that only the kind of photos included in the volume are to be considered “real picture-making” whereas war photography is not. This seems not only wrong to me but ignores the artistry of war photographers and the documentary tradition. A corrective for today might be to look up World War II photographers using wikipedia though I note the omission of Lee Miller from both World War II photographers and holocaust photographers. (Her individual entry gets it right though).

Landscape in pictorialist style is well represented as usual as are still lifes:

There are the usual nudes and figure studies. For instance this example of using a classical reference to present a nude:

Personally I find “Idol” to be a much more appealing image and I note that, once again, the female nude is just as likely to be taken by a female photographer as a male one at this time.

“Cherry Time” is another example of the use of classical reference and a pictorialist style.

You won’t be able read the above but it is an example of 21 pages listing camera clubs in the UK which perhaps gives an indication of how popular photography was as a hobby, even in the midst of war. I note that the camera club to which I belong today was listed as being operational in 1941.