Australian War Memorial

Went to the Australian War Memorial today.  The assignment was to find examples of photographic engineering and link them to today's technology.

During the first world war, portable cameras and printing were very NEW technology and as such were not used  a lot to capture images of war.  Photographic Journalism is very much a new profession, and it has it's roots in the First and Second World Wars.  The Vietnam and Korean wars were the first wars that were shown photographically to the public because of the availability of portable cameras.  It was the first time that the general public was able to view the reality of war.  This caused mass protest of War and pushed the "hippy movement" into the 20th century.

An example of photographic images used during the first world war were stereoscopic images that were taken with cameras that were far from portable and were scarcely found.  These were the first images taken of war that the general public was able to view, however these images weren't mass produced.

During the Second World War, photography played a larger role, with the invention of Aerial Cameras such as the british F. 52.  This camera was used to take Aerial Shots of enemy bases.  Three cameras would take one shot together to create a full view of the landscape.  However, reconnaissance was not the only thing cameras became useful for.  With the development of new ways of printing and portable cameras, Newspapers were able to print actual images of combat, but as the combat was mostly land-based, many of the images were of the Navy or the Airforce.