The power, and importance, of photography

[gstark]

Channel 7's Sunday show is showing a story on some photos from WWI, in France, that have recently been discovered.

3000 glass negs are in this collection, and many of them are of Australian servicemen. They're showing stories of some of the descendants of the subjects of the photos.

The reaction of the these people is heartwarming, and a testament to the skills and foresight of the photographer who made these images under what must have been very difficult circumstances.

Kudos to Seven for this story.

[Reschsmooth]

The big question is whether channel 7 had anything to do with the production of the story.

[gstark]

I don't know, Patrick.

But they certainly made an editorial decision to air the story, probably for the wrong reasons, but regardless ....

[fozzie]

Gary,

Thanks for the heads up.

Should the Australian Government not buy the entire collection glass negatives, they should hang their heads in shame.

[chrisk]

they must be running low on disasters to ambulance chase.

[the foto fanatic]

As a history blogger, I certainly hope that these images get into the public domain.

If not, then they should definitely become part of the War Museum in Canberra.

[surenj]

For anyone who didn't know about glass negatives,

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Photography-694/glass-negatives.htm

[Matt. K]

The power of photography?....I once had a woman and her grand daughter arrive in my office with a small faded passport sized photo of the womans Grand father. He was killed in WW1 and this was the only known image of him. She asked if I could restore the image and make a larger print. She held it as if it was the most precious item in the universe. With the magic of PhotoShop I was able to repair the image and make a few A4 sized prints of respectable quality and the look on their faces was priceless. A lone photograph of a loved one can also be priceless. When we die then photographs may be all that show we ever exited. How do you put a value on that?:cry: