The First World War: Unseen Glass Plate Photographs of the Western Front by Carl De Keyzer
by: Carl De Keyzer/David Van Reybrouck

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press , 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 280 pages. Preface by Geoff Dyer. Essay by David Van Reybrouck. Includes 20 color plates and 80 halftones. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap. The First World War presents a startlingly different perspective, one based on rare glass plate photographs, that reveals the war with previously unseen, even uncanny, clarity.Scanned from the original plates, with scratches and other flaws expertly removed, these oversized reproductions offer a wealth of unusual moments, including scenes of men in training, pictures of African colonial troops on the Western front, landscapes of astonishing destruction, and postmortem portraits of Belgian soldiers killed in action. Readers previously familiar with only black-and-white or sepia-toned prints of the hostilities will be riveted by the book's many authentic color photographs, products of the early autochrome method. From children playing war games to a wrenching deathbed visit, these images are extraordinary not only for their subject matter, but also for the wide range of emotions they evoke.