Image: Four Australian soldiers trudge through the shambles in the Ypres sector in 1917. Three have not been identified but the man on the right is Gunner William Henry Joyce, who is about to become a photographer and cinematographer in the newly created Australian War Records Section (AWRS). This is part of a larger image, which has a colourised version on Melbourne artist Benjamin Thomas’ Facebook Page.
This is the last ANZAC Day within the centenary of World War One, and a fitting moment to discuss the cinematographers of the AIF between 1914 and 1919. We always have to be careful with the provenance of battlefield footage because the cameras were heavy, there were no telephoto or zoom lenses, and the air was full of bullets. There is no material, for instance, of the Gallipoli landing, which happened in the dark, but the recreations turn up mislabelled as the real thing.
