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A venue in Aldershot. Less than 20 paid on the door.
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Soviet flag on the Reichstag,Berlin.May 1945
The recording of the MGM Lion,1929
The "Great Manta" that was captured by Captain A.L.Kahn on August 26, 1933
Marilyn Monroe with Ella Fitzgerald at the Mocambo a popular Hollywood night club at the time that would not book Ella because of segregation.Marilyn told the manager that she would reserve a front row table every night Ella performed there.Ella performed a week later.1955
Federal Ironclad USS GALENA James River,VA 1862
The last commercial sailing ship,Pamir,to round
Cape Horn in 1949
The crew of Apollo 11 enjoy the traditional steak and egg breakfast before departing for the
moon,July 16 1969
Sailors at Pearl Harbor watch as the USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese attack.December 7,1941
Germans testing a Messerschmitt Bf 109,1935
Women protesting the forced Hijab in Iran days after the 1979 revolution.
Railway gun prepares for the invasion of Poland September 1939
Some of the luckiest bomber crewmen of the entire war!
Returning from a Nickeling mission over Warsaw the night of October 15th-16th, 1939, the AW Whitley “L-Love” of 77 Squadron was running low on fuel and, thinking they had reached the French border, put down in a field. Although an AA gun had fired a single shot at them, turning on their navigation lights and putting the wheels down had ended further fire, and they assumed nothing was amiss.
Exiting the plane and walking out, they were greeted by a group of curious villagers who, after a stilted conversation in some poor quality French, informed them they were actually in Germany. Realizing their mistake, the crew bolted for the plane some 200 yards behind them, and had the engines started before the German military patrol reached them and opened fire. There was enough fuel left to make it the remaining dozen miles to France.
(Imperial War Museum)
Japanese peddler selling his wares.1901
1:AM.Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys,Brooklyn NYC,every night.3 smaller boys were kept out of the photo by the boss.April,1910
The Beatles at the Palais des Sports in France,June 1965
Charlie Chaplin being held in the air by Douglas Fairbanks,1918
Women boxing on a roof,circa 1930s
The german embassy in Sweden flying the flag at half mast april 30th 1945,the day Hitler died.
White House under reconstruction 1948-52
"A variety of dolls run over by toy testers at the Ideal Toy company in 1955"
London’s first computer, the fastest in the world at 1MHz. May, 1950
Information about the machine, designed by Alan Turing.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Computing_Engine
Servant Nicholas Biddle of the Washington Artillery who was said to be the first person wounded during the Civil War, c. 1861. As his unit was passing through Baltimore he was hit in the head by a brick during a confrontation with Confederate sympathizers.
.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/nick-biddle-and-the-first-defenders/
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_riot_of_1861
Construction of George Washington section of Mt. Rushmore Monument, Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1940
United States Postal Truck promoting mail boxes in Washington, 1916
Some amazing pics on this thread! I can't compete with this lot, but here is a pic of my wonderful grandad during WW2. India circa 1942. He is the guy on the right 
Union soldiers pose with Confederate flags that they captured in battle, each of whom were awarded a Medal of Honor for the capture, 1865.
This haunting photograph, which graced every Caribou briefing room, was a grim reminder that the Viet Cong and the NVA were not the only problem for pilots in Vietnam. This incident occurred in August of 1967 when the Caribou (tail number 62-4161) flew into the line of fire of a 155mm howitzer. This was early in the transition of the Caribou from the Army to the Air Force and highlighted the need for far better coordination amongst the services.
A U.S. twin-engine transport Caribou crashes after being hit by American artillery near Duc Pho on August 3, 1967. U.S. artillery accidentally shot down the ammunition-laden plane, which crossed a firing zone while trying to land at the U.S. Special Forces camp. All three crewman died in the crash.
The Hague, South Holland, the Netherlands, 1932
January 19th, 1903: First regular transatlantic (between the U.S. and England) radio broadcast.
Winston Churchill visiting the ruins of Coventry Cathedral after the Blitz
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic exploration vessel ‘Endurance’, as it sits stuck in sea ice, later to be crushed from the force and sink, 1915
A street in Tehran, cir. 1920
Paris in Colour from the early 1900's
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/09/color-photos-of-paris-in-_n_2653184.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/09/color-photos-of-paris-in-_n_2653184.html
April 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Firdos Square in Baghdad
Gary Cooper from the 1930 movie “The Texan”
April 11th, 1909: About 100 people participate in a lottery to equally divide a 12-acre plot of sand dunes they’ve purchased, that would later become the city of Tel Aviv, Israel.
Steam powered robot 1868
The Darby steam digger 1879
Chang the Chinese Giant, said to be over 8ft tall, toured the world then retired to Bournemouth and opened a tea shop.
Tower Bridge 1892
Nicholas Tesla
The first journey on the London Underground 1862
Stockholm telephone tower 1887
Tower of London 1893
Times Square c1900
Statue of Liberty's toes 1880
Empire Strikes Back script read through.
The Libyan revolutionary Muammar al-Gaddafi in Piccadilly, London during 1966, when he was stationed in the United Kingdom.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Gaddafi_in_London.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Gaddafi_in_London.jpg
Macca with Dave Gilmour at a Led Zeppelin concert
The back of the hoover dam with no water
Las Vegas 1912
U Boat U 118 washed up at Hastings 1919
Traffic violator driving a car being stopped by a policeman on a bicycle, New York City, 1900
Chaplin & Linder
Operator welding with Bernardos arc process, 1909
Browsing through the Archive of the Prague Castle
Unpacking the head of the Statue of Liberty, 1885
Heavily armed guards surround the court house and jail, housing John Dillinger, fearful that Dillinger’s gang would try to rescue their leader. Jan 30, 1934
John Herbert Dillinger was a Depression-era bank robber from Indiana who’s reign of illegal activity lasted only one year. From September 1933 until July 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding 7 others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging 3 jail breaks. In June 1934, Dillinger was named America’s first Public Enemy Number One by the FBI. On July 22, 1934, Dillinger was shot and killed by the FBI as he walked out of the Biograph Theater on Chicago’s north side. Anna Sage, his friend, had betrayed him to the FBI in return for not getting deported to her home country of Romania. Sage became known as the “Woman in Red” for her choice of clothing that day.
"Adolf Hitler wearing spectacles in a censored photograph taken by Heinrich Hoffmann. The photograph was censored personally by Hitler - no photograph in spectacles was to be published.", 1939
An RAF pilot in England waits to make a “beer run” to his squadron airfield in France, July 1944.
Fantastic picture of Wendolene (from Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave) with Mr Bowie.
^ after Roger Moore started out modelling clothes in catologues.....and long time before he was 007 he was Ivanhoe on TV.
September 1933, Goebbels finds out his photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt is Jewish.
…Later I found him at the same table surrounded by aides and bodyguards. Goebbels seemed so small, while his bodyguards were huge. I walked up close and photographed Goebbels. It was horrible. He looked up at me with an expression full of hate. The result, however, was a much stronger photograph. There is no substitute for close personal contact and involvement with a subject, no matter how unpleasant it may be.
First photo taken from space . 24 October, 1946 .
frank_n_bean:
The V2 Rocket was a ballistic missle designed and fired by Germany during WWII. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 of these rockets were fired, mostly at London (and later at Antwerp and Liège). It’s estimated that the missile attacks killed 9,000 civilians and military personnel and an additional 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners.
The missile itself was designed mostly by Wernher von Braun, who later assisted the US in their own rocket designs during Operation Paperclip and the US-Soviet Space Race.
The V2 was the first man-made object to cross the Kármán line, meaning it was the first to reach over 100km in height (which means it reached outer space).
This photograph was taken by a camera attached to one of the rockets. This rocket was fired straight up by the US, which, along with the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union gained access to the excess rockets and designs following the War. The camera itself was encased in a steel box to ensure it survived the fall back to Earth. The photo was taken at 105km (65 miles) above sea level and was taken 5 times higher than the previous highest photograph taken.
Mahatma Gandhi is greeted by a crowd of female textile workers during a visit to Darwen, Lancashire, UK in 1931
Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko c.1942. By the end of World War II, she had 309 confirmed kills, making her the most successful female sniper in history.
A meeting of the Mickey Mouse Club, early 1930s
Royal Marines lined up for a weapons check in the hanger of HMS Hermes in the South Atlantic on their way to the Falklands in 1982
A car named “Future”, designed by Sigvard Berggren in 1952.
Monaco 1937. Mercedes Benz.
Windows, Florence, 1934.
HELL DRIVERS
Joe, Jack, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert and Jean Kennedy, 1928
William H Bonney ........born William H McCarty Jr............
...better known as "Billy the Kid"..... the only authenticated image of him. (although one more has surfaced of him and his friend Dan Dedrick which could well be authentic)
The image was a "Ferrotype" taken in New Mexico in 1879 or 1880 by a photographer unknown.
After his death....Billy the Kid's friend....Dan Dedrick took the 2 inch by 3 inch image for safe keeping and it was passed down and kept in the family until........
....on 25 June 2011 two of Derricks descendants...Stephen and Art Upham ...decided to sell the ferrotype at auction......
The reserve price set was around $400,000......but eventually it was sold to billionaire William Koch for $2.3 million!!!!
..and a small twist....
..the ferrotype process used metal plates that created a reverse image to that seen by the photographer...it is the reproduction of this reverse image that led to the mistaken notion that Billy the Kid was left handed......he was not....he carried his gun on his right hip....and so was right handed...
...although such was his reputation of accuracy when firing from both hands simultaneously...maybe he was ambidextrous!!!!
...better known as "Billy the Kid"..... the only authenticated image of him. (although one more has surfaced of him and his friend Dan Dedrick which could well be authentic)
The image was a "Ferrotype" taken in New Mexico in 1879 or 1880 by a photographer unknown.
After his death....Billy the Kid's friend....Dan Dedrick took the 2 inch by 3 inch image for safe keeping and it was passed down and kept in the family until........
....on 25 June 2011 two of Derricks descendants...Stephen and Art Upham ...decided to sell the ferrotype at auction......
The reserve price set was around $400,000......but eventually it was sold to billionaire William Koch for $2.3 million!!!!
..and a small twist....
..the ferrotype process used metal plates that created a reverse image to that seen by the photographer...it is the reproduction of this reverse image that led to the mistaken notion that Billy the Kid was left handed......he was not....he carried his gun on his right hip....and so was right handed...
...although such was his reputation of accuracy when firing from both hands simultaneously...maybe he was ambidextrous!!!!
...a photograph of the cover of the Voyager Golden Record.
They were included in both Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft when launched in 1977 which are currently the farthest man made objects from earth.....and on September 12, 2013, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had left our Solar System and entered interstellar space.
The records themselves contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them.
The then US President Jimmy carter said this.....
"This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours"
....maybe some of our co-inhabitants of the universe are having a terribly civilised dinner party with Beethoven...Mozart and Stravinsky on in the background as we speak!!!!!! (with a bit of Chuck Berry once the elders have gone to bed!!!
more on the Voyager Records contents and other stuff here.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
"The last Jew of Vinnitsa" ......taken by an unknown member of the Einsatzgruppen in Vinnitsa, Ukraine in 1941.
...unfortunately cannot post the image directly as I cant get it past the moderators ....
(who have in their wisdom deemed it too sensitive to be posted even in the context of this thread and even considering it is one of the 20th centurys most iconic images)...
it can be viewed here however..... http://i.imgur.com/BmKxkVO.jpg
..anyway....
...this image was found in the personal photo album of a soldier of the Einsatzgruppen labelled on the back of the image as ...."The last Jew of Vinnitsa".
The Einsatzgruppen were to all intents and purposes simply death squads tasked with carrying out the practicalities of Hitlers "final solution".
It has been estimated that thousands of Jews were excecuted in this area at the time.
..as I posted on 17 November.....
"great stuff HM.
..I love photography... which I guess simply put is a moment frozen in time represented as an image.
It can be the medium through which we analyse ourselves and others and the world around us.
As well as our respective actions, responsibilities and consequences in said world.
As one of the greats of history.....Edward Steichen said....
"The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth"
I am sure there are some who would see this as pretentious nonsense.....
......but as this next offering may show....an image can be the catalyst to raise powerful and fundamental questions of both the image maker and observer!! "
...of course "The last Jew of Vinnitsa" wasn't the next offering but it could just as well have been...
...photography is simply a moment in time....frozen...captured forever...and when powerful enough....the moment that is captured lives on forever and can evoke just as powerful feeling and sentiment in the observer (and image taker if still alive) long after the physical moment it represents has passed.
This image does just that.....it shows just how worthless the Nazis viewed the life of the Jewish...and the callous and matter of fact way in which they ended Jewish life.
As for the victim...in what he realises will be his last few seconds of life....and as he perches on the edge of the pit where his compatriots and friends have been despatched to previously.........he seems to look resigned to his fate.......but also defiant I think.....at least that is what I would like to think.
Anyway...one of the most visceral examples of an image that represents the words that many have spoken of through the years...... "Man's inhumanity to man"
(although nobody seems to know definitively who exactly coined the phrase first)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_inhumanity_to_man
...unfortunately cannot post the image directly as I cant get it past the moderators ....
(who have in their wisdom deemed it too sensitive to be posted even in the context of this thread and even considering it is one of the 20th centurys most iconic images)...
it can be viewed here however..... http://i.imgur.com/BmKxkVO.jpg
..anyway....
...this image was found in the personal photo album of a soldier of the Einsatzgruppen labelled on the back of the image as ...."The last Jew of Vinnitsa".
The Einsatzgruppen were to all intents and purposes simply death squads tasked with carrying out the practicalities of Hitlers "final solution".
It has been estimated that thousands of Jews were excecuted in this area at the time.
..as I posted on 17 November.....
"great stuff HM.
..I love photography... which I guess simply put is a moment frozen in time represented as an image.
It can be the medium through which we analyse ourselves and others and the world around us.
As well as our respective actions, responsibilities and consequences in said world.
As one of the greats of history.....Edward Steichen said....
"The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth"
I am sure there are some who would see this as pretentious nonsense.....
......but as this next offering may show....an image can be the catalyst to raise powerful and fundamental questions of both the image maker and observer!! "
...of course "The last Jew of Vinnitsa" wasn't the next offering but it could just as well have been...
...photography is simply a moment in time....frozen...captured forever...and when powerful enough....the moment that is captured lives on forever and can evoke just as powerful feeling and sentiment in the observer (and image taker if still alive) long after the physical moment it represents has passed.
This image does just that.....it shows just how worthless the Nazis viewed the life of the Jewish...and the callous and matter of fact way in which they ended Jewish life.
As for the victim...in what he realises will be his last few seconds of life....and as he perches on the edge of the pit where his compatriots and friends have been despatched to previously.........he seems to look resigned to his fate.......but also defiant I think.....at least that is what I would like to think.
Anyway...one of the most visceral examples of an image that represents the words that many have spoken of through the years...... "Man's inhumanity to man"
(although nobody seems to know definitively who exactly coined the phrase first)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_inhumanity_to_man
Not photographs but I believe they answer a recent mystery:
..fits nicely with this thread.....
Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs.......
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03xsrvv/Hidden_Histories_WW1s_Forgotten_Photographs/
...on last night........images taken by the soldiers involved and how the images they saw affected them and how those images and the contents of them changed as the war progressed....
...the early ones seemed to reflect the optimism excitement and idealism of the start of the war......as the war progressed and reality started to prevail the content changed dramatically.
very interesting
Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs.......
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03xsrvv/Hidden_Histories_WW1s_Forgotten_Photographs/
...on last night........images taken by the soldiers involved and how the images they saw affected them and how those images and the contents of them changed as the war progressed....
...the early ones seemed to reflect the optimism excitement and idealism of the start of the war......as the war progressed and reality started to prevail the content changed dramatically.
very interesting
This is "C" Company, 3 Para. It was taken in July 1944, Spalding, Lincs. I assume there was some training going on in that area. A couple of months later they were involved in Operation Market Garden. My Great Uncle is in the middle row
Holland Island, featured on the Deserted places blog today:
..good stuff Hank..
and Alpha.....the way the house has been inundated is quite sad.
and Alpha.....the way the house has been inundated is quite sad.
Bigmo
"Adolf Hitler wearing spectacles in a censored photograph taken by Heinrich Hoffmann. The photograph was censored personally by Hitler - no photograph in spectacles was to be published.", 1939
I saw a French documentary the other day which actually showed you film footage of Hitler wearing specs.
"Adolf Hitler wearing spectacles in a censored photograph taken by Heinrich Hoffmann. The photograph was censored personally by Hitler - no photograph in spectacles was to be published.", 1939
I saw a French documentary the other day which actually showed you film footage of Hitler wearing specs.
..nice...
...looks like something from Martin Parr or William Eggleston.
...looks like something from Martin Parr or William Eggleston.
^^^
By Chris Steele-Perkins talented Magnum photographer
By Chris Steele-Perkins talented Magnum photographer
On 2 December I posted the "Stars and Stripes....the glorious and the inglorious"
..the glorious being "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" taken by Joe Rosenthal with a brief description of the story behind the image.
There is a good documentary on PBS America tonight at 9.00...."The Boys of H Company" on the same subject.
For those into that sort of thing.
..the glorious being "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" taken by Joe Rosenthal with a brief description of the story behind the image.
There is a good documentary on PBS America tonight at 9.00...."The Boys of H Company" on the same subject.
For those into that sort of thing.
English girl comforts her doll in the rubble of her bomb-damaged home, 1940
Keddle net fishing in Rye Harbour 1910
The nets are erected at low tide ,
The fish are forced to swim into the keddle when the tide is in
When the tide has receded the fish are then harvested
Licences are still today issued by Rother District Council to Keddle fisherman
The nets are erected at low tide ,
The fish are forced to swim into the keddle when the tide is in
When the tide has receded the fish are then harvested
Licences are still today issued by Rother District Council to Keddle fisherman
...the 70th anniversary of D-Day tomorrow....
...so a good time to revisit Robert Capa and the story of his "magnificent eleven"...
...first posted November last year.
Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, the first wave of American troops land at dawn on June 6th 1944. © Magnum Photos/Robert Capa
Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment rush toward the shelter of amphibious tanks at the water’s edge of Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach on June 6th 1944.
These two are taken by the legendary Robert Capa..one of the greatest ever...and are part of what came to be known as "The Magnificent Eleven".
Here is the story...
In the early hours of 6 June 1944, Robert Capa boarded a landing craft with members of the US Infantry. It was the first day of Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, and more than 160,000 Allied troops were about to invade occupied France. This was to be the largest amphibious invasion in military history.
Capa, a charismatic 30-year-old Hungarian, was an experienced and respected photojournalist. He had previously been on assignment during both the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, and had photographed the war in Italy in 1943. Now he faced one of the most dangerous assignments of his career: photographing on the front line as the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Capa was covering the war for Life magazine and had chosen to land with the first wave of troops. After leaving England on a troop ship, he transferred to a landing craft ten miles from the French coast. He was carrying two Contax II 35mm cameras, both fitted with 50mm lenses, and several rolls of film.
As the craft neared the beach codenamed Omaha, the front of the boat was lowered and Capa got his first view of the shore. He had happy memories of the times he had previously spent socialising in France, but this day was very different.
‘My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return,’ Capa vividly wrote in his 1947 memoir Slightly out of Focus. ‘The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background – this was good enough for the photographer.
‘I paused a moment on the gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion. The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear. The water was cold, and the beach still more than 100 yards away. The bullets tore holes in the water around me, and I made for the nearest steel obstacle.’
Of all the assignments Capa had carried out, this was the most terrifying. He had landed on a particularly heavily defended part of the coast and as he stood in the water, feeling that he could die at any moment, he felt ‘a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face.’
Hundreds of American soldiers were killed in the attack and many of the dead lay in the shallow water around him. Despite the danger, Capa continued photographing for more than an hour and a half and managed to shoot 106 frames.
After completing his task of photographing the landings, Capa’s survival instincts took over. Seeing another craft approaching the beach, he fled towards it. After he was hoisted aboard, the vessel took a direct hit from a German shell and several men on board were killed. Capa survived and transferred to a troop ship for the return journey to England.
On arriving in Weymouth, Dorset, Capa put the four rolls of 35mm film in a courier’s pouch together with several 120mm rolls that he had shot before the invasion. He also included a note to John Morris, Life’s London office picture editor, that stated, ‘John – all the action’s in the 35mm.’ With his films safely on their way, Capa boarded the first boat returning to France.
When the courier arrived at the Life office, Morris urged his staff to develop the films quickly in order to meet the ublication deadline. They were given to 15-year-old darkroom assistant Dennis Banks to develop.
The incident that followed has become as famous as Capa’s images. A few minutes later, Banks returned to Morris’s office in tears, saying, ‘They’re ruined! Capa’s films are all ruined!’ In the rush to process and dry the films, Banks had placed them in a wooden drying cabinet and closed the doors. The heat had been so intense that the emulsion had melted and all that was left, as Morris discovered as he examined the films, was ‘a brown sludge in frame after frame’.
On the last film, however, 11 partially damaged frames had survived and Morris asked for prints of all of them. They were approved by the censor’s office and dispatched just in time for the deadline. Although shot in extreme circumstances and in poor light, the images clearly revealed the American soldiers wading through the waters and taking cover as they advanced towards the German defences. The most famous image singled out one soldier up to his neck in seawater as he made his way towards the beach.
The soldier has been identified, at different times, as Edward K Regan and Alphonse Joseph Arsenault, who were both involved in the invasion. The most likely candidate, however, is Huston Riley, who lived through the battle.
A selection of the surviving images appeared over seven pages of the 19 June 1944 issue of Life. The text explained that these pictures showed ‘how violent the battle was and how strong the German defences’ and blamed the fact that the images were ‘slightly out of focus’ on Capa’s hands shaking as he took them.
On 8 June, Capa returned to Omaha beach to photograph the aftermath of the invasion after the Allies had secured the area. These more considered pictures tell their own grim story of death and burial. However, the surviving D-Day pictures are the ones that most effectively capture the reality of combat from the troops’ perspective and are recognised, in John Morris’s words, as ‘among the most dramatic battlefield photos ever taken’.
...so a good time to revisit Robert Capa and the story of his "magnificent eleven"...
...first posted November last year.
Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, the first wave of American troops land at dawn on June 6th 1944. © Magnum Photos/Robert Capa
Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment rush toward the shelter of amphibious tanks at the water’s edge of Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach on June 6th 1944.
These two are taken by the legendary Robert Capa..one of the greatest ever
...and are part of what came to be known as "The Magnificent Eleven".Here is the story...
In the early hours of 6 June 1944, Robert Capa boarded a landing craft with members of the US Infantry. It was the first day of Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, and more than 160,000 Allied troops were about to invade occupied France. This was to be the largest amphibious invasion in military history.
Capa, a charismatic 30-year-old Hungarian, was an experienced and respected photojournalist. He had previously been on assignment during both the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, and had photographed the war in Italy in 1943. Now he faced one of the most dangerous assignments of his career: photographing on the front line as the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Capa was covering the war for Life magazine and had chosen to land with the first wave of troops. After leaving England on a troop ship, he transferred to a landing craft ten miles from the French coast. He was carrying two Contax II 35mm cameras, both fitted with 50mm lenses, and several rolls of film.
As the craft neared the beach codenamed Omaha, the front of the boat was lowered and Capa got his first view of the shore. He had happy memories of the times he had previously spent socialising in France, but this day was very different.
‘My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return,’ Capa vividly wrote in his 1947 memoir Slightly out of Focus. ‘The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background – this was good enough for the photographer.
‘I paused a moment on the gangplank to take my first real picture of the invasion. The boatswain, who was in an understandable hurry to get the hell out of there, mistook my picture-taking attitude for explicable hesitation, and helped me make up my mind with a well-aimed kick in the rear. The water was cold, and the beach still more than 100 yards away. The bullets tore holes in the water around me, and I made for the nearest steel obstacle.’
Of all the assignments Capa had carried out, this was the most terrifying. He had landed on a particularly heavily defended part of the coast and as he stood in the water, feeling that he could die at any moment, he felt ‘a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face.’
Hundreds of American soldiers were killed in the attack and many of the dead lay in the shallow water around him. Despite the danger, Capa continued photographing for more than an hour and a half and managed to shoot 106 frames.
After completing his task of photographing the landings, Capa’s survival instincts took over. Seeing another craft approaching the beach, he fled towards it. After he was hoisted aboard, the vessel took a direct hit from a German shell and several men on board were killed. Capa survived and transferred to a troop ship for the return journey to England.
On arriving in Weymouth, Dorset, Capa put the four rolls of 35mm film in a courier’s pouch together with several 120mm rolls that he had shot before the invasion. He also included a note to John Morris, Life’s London office picture editor, that stated, ‘John – all the action’s in the 35mm.’ With his films safely on their way, Capa boarded the first boat returning to France.
When the courier arrived at the Life office, Morris urged his staff to develop the films quickly in order to meet the ublication deadline. They were given to 15-year-old darkroom assistant Dennis Banks to develop.
The incident that followed has become as famous as Capa’s images. A few minutes later, Banks returned to Morris’s office in tears, saying, ‘They’re ruined! Capa’s films are all ruined!’ In the rush to process and dry the films, Banks had placed them in a wooden drying cabinet and closed the doors. The heat had been so intense that the emulsion had melted and all that was left, as Morris discovered as he examined the films, was ‘a brown sludge in frame after frame’.
On the last film, however, 11 partially damaged frames had survived and Morris asked for prints of all of them. They were approved by the censor’s office and dispatched just in time for the deadline. Although shot in extreme circumstances and in poor light, the images clearly revealed the American soldiers wading through the waters and taking cover as they advanced towards the German defences. The most famous image singled out one soldier up to his neck in seawater as he made his way towards the beach.
The soldier has been identified, at different times, as Edward K Regan and Alphonse Joseph Arsenault, who were both involved in the invasion. The most likely candidate, however, is Huston Riley, who lived through the battle.
A selection of the surviving images appeared over seven pages of the 19 June 1944 issue of Life. The text explained that these pictures showed ‘how violent the battle was and how strong the German defences’ and blamed the fact that the images were ‘slightly out of focus’ on Capa’s hands shaking as he took them.
On 8 June, Capa returned to Omaha beach to photograph the aftermath of the invasion after the Allies had secured the area. These more considered pictures tell their own grim story of death and burial. However, the surviving D-Day pictures are the ones that most effectively capture the reality of combat from the troops’ perspective and are recognised, in John Morris’s words, as ‘among the most dramatic battlefield photos ever taken’.
egner • March 14, 2014 12:33 PM GMT
..fits nicely with this thread.....
Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs.......
On again tonight...BBC4 10PM
...worth a look if anyone interested.
........images taken by the soldiers involved and how the images they saw affected them and how those images and the contents of them changed as the war progressed....as did the attitude of those in power toward the taking of them.
...the early ones seemed to reflect the optimism... excitement.. and idealism of the start of the war......as the war progressed and reality started to prevail the content changed dramatically.
very interesting.
..fits nicely with this thread.....
Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs.......
On again tonight...BBC4 10PM
...worth a look if anyone interested.
........images taken by the soldiers involved and how the images they saw affected them and how those images and the contents of them changed as the war progressed....as did the attitude of those in power toward the taking of them.
...the early ones seemed to reflect the optimism... excitement.. and idealism of the start of the war......as the war progressed and reality started to prevail the content changed dramatically.
very interesting.
Love this thread.
Programme on BBC4 was well worth watching egner - thanks for notification
Programme on BBC4 was well worth watching egner - thanks for notification
If Saturn was as far away from Earth as the moon is, this is what our sky would look like
A picture of Billie Whitelaw by photographer Jane Brown, who both past away on the same day.
Gregory Peck on location using a cell phone, filming Roman Holiday.
...on 28 December 2013 I posted about my great granfathers brother....Reggie Hoidge......
....for anyone interested there is a Timewatch documentary on BBC 4 tonight at 11.00pm on a guy he flew with James McCudden....
They were both part of the squadron andi the dogfight that eventually downed the legendary Werner Voss....
....for anyone interested there is a Timewatch documentary on BBC 4 tonight at 11.00pm on a guy he flew with James McCudden....
They were both part of the squadron andi the dogfight that eventually downed the legendary Werner Voss....
oh you beat me to it, tbb, not just prince harry that is a fan then.
my betfair picture moderators have faster fingers
"Leap of Freedom" taken by Peter Leibing on 15 August 1961 at 4.00pm.
An image of Conrad Schumann making his iconic leap over the "Berlin Wall" and to freedom.....
...at least a freedom of sorts.
Schumann was a 19 year old East German soldier posted to the corner of Ruppiner Street and Bernauer Street to guard the Berlin Wall.....the wall was only in its third day of construction and as you can see at this stage consisted only of a roll of barbed wire.....
Schumann knew that a small leap over the wire would be far more preferable to scaling the wall that was to come....and so he took his chance....
People on the western side could see his agitation and were encouraging him and beckoning him over......and a police car was discreetly positioned to speed Schumann away should he act...
"My nerves were at breaking point… I was very afraid. I took off, jumped, and into the car … in three, four seconds it was all over.” Schumann later recounted.
Peter Leibing was sent by his agency in Hamburg to cover the Berlin Wall construction and got wind that an East German soldier may be about defect.......an hour and a half after he arrived he got one of the most iconic shots in history.....
Leibing recalls....
“I had him in my sight for more than an hour. I had a feeling he was going to jump. It was kind of an instinct. … I had learned how to get the timing right photographing horses at the Jump Derby in Hamburg. You have to photograph the horse when it leaves the ground and catch it as it clears the barrier. And then he came. I pressed the shutter and it was all over.”
Schumann was the first....but some 3000 East German soldiers and police would follow him by the time the wall came down.
So.....freedom...for Schumann......an iconic and career defining image for Leibing....and a huge propaganda coup for the west.....the image was milked for all it was worth as an example of how the human spirit could not be constrained by the evil of communism.
So Schumann was physically free.......after the initial media frenzy he settled in Bavaria...met his wife and went to work in a car factory...a normal life but there were signs that the guilt he felt at leaving his friends and family behind and deserting his duty were always there in the background.....as was the threat of retribution from the Stasi....
When the wall came down on 9 November 1989 he....and his story was thrust back in the limelight.....
Schumann declared "Only since 9 November 1989 have I felt truly free." .....and now the wall was down he was free to return without punishment..at least from the authorities who would have jailed him or even worse...
But when he did return perhaps the punishment he received was even worse....
To many members of his family and those he had worked with...despite the wall coming down ........he was still a traitor....
“There are still some people who refuse to speak to me” Schumann would say in an interview after returning.
So ...a short leap over a tangle of barbed wire......leading to freedom....but only a freedom of sorts I think....
On 20 June 1998....at age 56......Conrad Schumann was found hanged in the orchard behind his house.
He left no note.
"The Kiss" taken by Régis Bossu in East Berlin on 7 October 1979.
An image of Leonid Brezhnev.... the then Soviet leader.... and Eric Honeker.... leader of East Germany....in an enthusiastic enactment of the Socialist Fraternal Kiss.
Brezhnev was guest of honour at celebrations to commemorate the 30th anniversary of East Germany....and once he had finished his speech Honeker approached to embrace him.....and Bossu got the image...
Many magazines including Paris Match published it and it soon spread round the world......
Once the Berlin Wall came down many artists flocked to Berlin and painted murals on the wall....the most famous was one by Dmitri Vrubel who recreated the photograph as a painting on the wall with the caption ....
"My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love"
.....more on the socialist fraternal kiss here......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_fraternal_kiss
....I wonder if Mr Corbyn might be resurrecting the tradition in a few years time!!!!!.......yikes.
"Melancholia" by the Belgian Autochromist Charles Corbet taken around 1910.
Taken using the Autochrome Lumiere process..............the same process used to take the "Messines Crater" image posted in November 2013 and the First World War images posted in December 2013.
The process started to die out when the first colour film started to become available in the 1930's.....
Beautiful image....
"Twin Towers with Seagull" Taken by Louis Stettner 1978.
..an atmospheric shot of the twin towers.....given more resonance knowing what happened to them subsequently....by Stettner...one of the greats of street photography who grew up in its golden era and mixed with some of the other greats....
Reminiscent of the Eve Arnold image posted 20 November 2013.
Too much of his beautiful stuff to post individually.....so for those interested you can see his work here......
http://www.loustettner.com/photos/earlynewyork/index.htm
..and more about the guys life here.......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Stettner
Geoff Thomas & Alan Pardew (always had panache) with unknown fan circa 1990...
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