1914 – 1918: The War Years in Photographs

4 minute read

Welcome to TIME LightBox’s curators series, which invites top photography curators from around the world to present and discuss photography of their choosing in an effort to learn more about their curatorial preferences and the path from individual images to full-fledged exhibitions. In this edition of the series, TIME invited Lisa Hostetler, of the Department of Photography at George Eastman House, to talk about her archival survey of World War I and the process of unearthing little-known images of a world at war.


On July 28, 1914, Austro-Hungarian troops invaded Serbia in retaliation for the assassination, one month earlier, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Entangled alliances and colonial imperialism among key European powers—Germany, England, France, Russia and the Ottoman Empire—led to war on an unprecedented scale.

Technological advances in weaponry demanded new military strategies, but the learning curve was steep. This, in addition to the implementation of newly available intelligence-gathering techniques made possible by modern photography and aviation, led to a staggering number of casualties: 16 million dead — including seven million civilians — and 21 million wounded.

The Great War fundamentally changed popular perceptions not only of war, but of the social and political systems that created an environment in which war was almost inevitable. During the late 1910s, ’20s and ’30s many questioned the status quo, resulting in cultural and political phenomena—the Bolshevik Revolution, Weimar Germany, Surrealism, the Lost Generation, the New Vision in photography and the acceleration of the picture press—that radically altered the texture of everyday life in the West.

These and other interwar developments have been widely studied, but I wondered what it was like for civilians and military personnel during the war years amid the upheaval.

Since photographs are made by all kinds of people for all kinds of purposes—and because photographs automatically embed the point of view of the photographer into every image that he or she makes—they can provide vital insight into the look and feel of an era as experienced by a particular person at a particular time.

To get a general view of this period, I looked at photographs made between 1914 and 1918 in the Photography Collection of George Eastman House, the world’s oldest museum devoted to photography. I was only able to view a fraction of those made during the war years, but I found some incredible photographs, shown here.

In the process, I was reminded of simultaneities that are easy to forget when one is looking at photography from only one perspective, as either historical record-making, as creative expression or as rhetorical explication. Often, a photograph performs all of these functions at once, regardless of the photographer’s intent. For example, Alvin Langdon Coburn’s portrait of Ezra Pound is one from a series of “vortographs” that he made in 1917. At that time, Coburn was living in England and actively involved in the circle of painters and poets associated with Vorticism, a movement that celebrated the dynamism of modern life and challenged cultural conventions. The abstract paintings of Wyndham Lewis and elliptical poetry of Pound are key Vorticist hallmarks, but Coburn’s photograph seems to channel the chaos and confusion of 1917 as a centrifugal force that threatens to shatter personal identity from within, like shrapnel in flesh.

The snapshot of Nickolas Muray (who became a successful color photographer in the 1920s) reminds us that in 1914, upper middle class families like his had no idea of the changes World War I would bring; similarly, Lewis Hine’s photograph of soldiers playing football on the eve of their deployment leaves little indication of the devastating experience awaiting them.

Aerial photography was a brand new enterprise in 1914, as the photographs of men learning to make and interpret aerial photographs illustrate. During these years, Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz shifted their style from Pictorialism to Modernism as they continued to advocate for photography as a fine art; Morton Schamberg, whose great artistic potential would never be realized, died at age 37 in the influenza epidemic of 1918; and Elias Goldensky and Harry Lerner used experimental color photographic processes with very different results.

All the while, criminals still committed crimes, as the mug shot of Oscar Ochoa confirms, and ambitious businessmen still sought to expand their reach with extravagant productions like the Pan-American Exposition of 1915, photographed by Francis Bruguière.

Looking at this cross-section of images made me realize how diverse life is at every moment in history and how global events such as World War I permeate all aspects of society.


Lisa Hostetler is Curator in Charge at the Department of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.


Nickolas Muray with family and friends, 1914 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of Mrs. Nickolas Muray; Nickolas Muray Photo Archives, courtesy of George Eastman HouseUnidentified or Nickolas Muray
Woodrow Wilson, 1915,
Woodrow Wilson, 1915 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of Eastman Kodak CompanyHarry Lerner
Mug shot of Oscar Ochoa, 1915,
Mug shot of Oscar Ochoa, 1915 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified (American)
Mug shot of Oscar Ochoa, 1915 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified (American)
Arch of the East, Pan-American Exposition, San Francisco, 1915,
Arch of the East, Pan-American Exposition, San Francisco, 1915 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of Rosalinde FullerFrancis Bruguière
Portrait of a woman in stage costume, 1915,
Portrait of a woman in stage costume, 1915 George Eastman House CollectionE.O. Hoppé
Milk Bottles: Spring, New York, 1915,
Milk Bottles: Spring, New York, 1915 George Eastman House Collection, Bequest of Edward Steichen under the direction of Joanna T. Steichen/Artists Rights SocietyEdward Steichen
An example of an annotated photograph with local names of trenches inserted..., ca. 1916
Annotated aerial photograph, ca. 1916 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified
Unidentified Woman with Parasol, 1916
Woman with Parasol, 1916 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of 3M Company, ex-collection Louis Walton SipleyElias Goldensky
City Courtyards, 1916,
City Courtyards, 1916 George Eastman House CollectionMorton Schamberg
Doylestown House – Stairwell, 1917
Doylestown House – Stairwell, 1917 The Lane Collection/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/George Eastman House CollectionCharles Sheeler
Soldiers playing football, Army training camp, 1917
Soldiers playing football, Army training camp, 1917 George Eastman House Collection, Transfer from Photo League Lewis Hine Memorial Committee, ex-collection of Corydon HineLewis Hine
Trench scene at Bataglan 'Four de Paris', ca. 1917
Trench Scene at Bataglan “Four de Paris,” ca. 1917 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified (French)
French artillery observation post near Vendresse (Aisne), ca. 1917
French artillery observation post near Vendresse (Aisne), ca. 1917 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified (French)
Ezra Pound (multiple exposure), 1917
Ezra Pound, 1917 George Eastman House Collection, Bequest of the photographerAlvin Langdon Coburn
Saucisse d'Observation, ca. 1918
Saucisse d’Observation, ca. 1918 George Eastman House CollectionUnidentified (French)
Aerial Cameras, 1918
Aerial cameras at USA School of Aerial Photography, Rochester, New York, 1918 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of Dwight R. FurnessUnidentified (American)
The Pilot and Observer get together before a Flight, Baker Field, 1918
The Pilot and Observer Get Together Before a Flight, Baker Field, 1918 George Eastman House Collection, Gift of Dwight R. FurnessUnidentified (American)
Aerial View, May 1918,
Aerial View, May 1918 George Eastman House CollectionAmerican Military Personnel (Grady)
Georgia O'Keeffe with watercolor paint box, 1918
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918 George Eastman House Collection, Partial purchase and partial gift from Georgia O’KeeffeAlfred Stieglitz

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