Portraits of the Great War (WWI)

Hello everyone. This thread might be out in left field, but while wondering thru the BBC website (BBC.com) I noticed the article about Eugene Burnard, who used pastels to sketch around 70 combatants of the "Great War", we knowing this as WW I, between 1917-21 in several French cities. I have always enjoyed classical portraiture and in an instant converted his plates into B/W prints (in my mind of course). There are a few members in this forum who seem historically incline, so I ask you: Did someone of that time period do similar work as Burnard, but with camera & film. ?

Go tour the article. Just imagine what the CMC of that period might have been !

The above thumbnails are from the BBC article, written by Jan-Francis Kelly. Aloha, Bill

Well, there are Louis and Antoinette Thuillier from Vignacourt who shot thousands of portraits of the allied troops of the Triple Entente who passed through the area.

Ross Coulthart published two books each containing some 300 scans from when they rediscovered the negatives back in 2010. "The Lost Diggers" and "The Lost Tommies"

 

Thanks for the info Rick. I was able to locate a copy of "The Lost Diggers" at the University of Hawaii (Manoa) & hope to spend some time there in several weeks. From what I gleened from Google, my time will be most enjoyable. Aloha, Bill

What I found so amazing is that so many of the people in the photos could still be identified by relatives after so many years.

There is a documentary online about the rediscovery of the plates and the original background in Vignacourt.

 

Both books are worth viewing/reading. It is sad considering the men in the photos in the "The Lost Diggers" had been sent straight from Gallipoli to fight in France and a number of those certainly did not live to see the Armistice. :(