excerpt from Sue Georgevits’ article on the role of private memories in understanding the past
Georgevits, S. ‘To Jean from Bill: History, Memory and Photography’, Public History Review, Vol
5/6, 1996-7
The Album's Significance to the Historian
In my view, the album can be seen as an historical artefact in its own right rather than just a
visual record. As Stokes suggests, the contribution that photographs can make should not be
ignored or underestimated but cherished for the cloud of witnesses contained within. Personal
photographs not only give the viewer a sense of immediacy: they can stimulate remembering and
expose memorabilia from the time. Thus photographs can contribute to developing a critical
awareness of how the past relates to, or is remembered in, the present. While photographs give
clues about the time when they were taken, the technology of the period and people's personal
and cultural preoccupations, photographs from personal collections (as opposed to wedding or
baby snaps) can tell the historian a great deal more than this.
Patricia Holland highlights one of the most complex issues in the debate on how personal
photographs can be interpreted and used in history when she argues that they pose 'a series of
challenges to different pasts, as memory interweaves with private fantasy and public history'. It is
this possibility of private fantasy that raises doubts for some historians as to the validity of
incorporating memory as part of historical analysis. It is perhaps for this reason that personal
photographs have been largely ignored by social historians. When personal photographs have
been used it has been for the purpose of illustration or to add an element of human interest to the
work. Yet these uses of private photographs do not come to terms with the meanings embedded
within them nor their cultural or social value.
Photographs became an obvious point from which to examine the ways in which people
remember. It is memories of the participants that will bring the photographs to life and uncover
new possibilities about the past that other sources such as official and written records fail to
engender. The actual album can give the historian an intimate insight into the lives of individuals
rather than just a record of events. Although the photograph as evidence is no different from
other sources in that they are inadequate if used alone, photography has an added complexity
because 'a photograph changes according to the context in which it is seen'. Moreover, it
significantly changes according to who is viewing it. As shown earlier, the audience is an active
recipient and their role must be considered carefully in any analysis.
In many ways the historical usefulness of the private album is to be found in the memories and
associations which can be brought to these photographs, rather than the detail contained within.
Often it is not what the actual photograph shows but the connection between the private
involvement in or memory of the public event that is important. As with oral history,
photographs and the memory work that accompanies them can contribute to a broader
representation of the past beyond the life of the individual.
Photo-collections such as this also shed light on some of the ways in which the soldiers wanted
the war to be perceived by those they loved. They highlight in this sense the vast differences
between the personal and official recording of the war. In The Photographic Record of The War,
C.E.W. Bean documented the outbreak and the theatres of war in which the Australian soldiers
fought. The personal experiences of the men as they waited to go to the front or while they were
on leave was not considered to be part of the history of a country at war nor worth recording.
While there are an enormous number of sources from which to gain insights into these aspects of
the experiences of the soldiers such as letters and diaries, personal photo-collections can
contribute visual and textual richness to these sources.
Through the collection, Bill creates a narrative of his life while overseas in the way that he wants
Jean to view it. As such, the album offers an opportunity to view one man's expression of his life
overseas while at war. The collection consists of images of travel to England and Wales while on
leave. It includes posed yet candid shots of mates that served in France with him. Despite the
soldiers generally being pictured in uniform, of the ninety-six photographs in the collection only
five give any indication of the seriousness of the war. The other photographs of France are of
days spent back at the barracks, visits to chateaus, sports days and staging entertainment amongst
mates. The photograph of them leaning on their rifles outside the Chateau Montigny suggests
holidays rather than at war. The rifles appear as props rather than instruments of death.
Overall, the album gives a sense of excitement, travel and opportunity. There is no feeling of the
tragedy and hardship that we know was a part of the war on the western front in 1916-17. Even
the five photographs of life in the trenches are deliberately posed to develop a sense of fun and
humour as indicated by the sign above the trench: 'Bob Down You're Spotted'. This photograph
has a digger comfortably lounging on the side of a trench looking at the sign. The trench is very
neat and well constructed with duck boards in place. There is no evidence of mud. The soldier is
well dressed. While the exact date and position of the trench is unknown, given that the
photograph's background has been obliterated by shells it suggests that there is more to survival
than just bobbing down. It is well known that by 1917 the western front was the face of death
and destruction: this photograph has evidence of some heavy fighting. Humour was an essential
ingredient in the survival of the men in the trenches. This humorous depiction of life in the
trenches was perhaps included by Bill to alleviate concerns of his family and to act as positive
record of his experiences upon his return home.
Another photograph in the collection labelled 'No Mans' Land — Hill 60' is quite clearly the
background of the previous image. While the photograph certainly gives an indication of the
devastation as the countryside has been obliterated, even so the real cost of war is hidden from
the viewer because there is no evidence of fighting or death. The juxtaposition of the humour and
devastation is also evident in the photograph of 'O.P. Hill 60'. The soldier is lounging back on a
pole with branches on the top as if he is sunning himself on a beach. The irony of this
photograph is that it was in such a position that Bill was wounded. While there are a few
photographs in the collection of damaged buildings in Strazelle, France, that do give a real sense
of the obliteration that occurred, all the other photographs are of group shots, of leave in Wales
and of sports days, thus reinforcing the idea that war was fun and an adventure.
While the collection gives the impression that war was an adventure, it would have been useful
to know what Bill as the album's creator intended to depict. How did he view this album and his
experiences of war? For example, was the album meant to be a record of fond memories, a
souvenir or a carefully constructed view of the war to alleviate Jean's fears? Such a view of war
as that represented in the album was common amongst the soldiers as indicated in their letters
home. There is much in Bill's visual record of his experiences that would bear similarities to
those of other men. Parallels such as this can occur even with photographs that are not about an
experience as memorable or as collective as war. What seems to be a unique and, indeed private,
destiny is in fact part of a wider social pattern.
When considering the value for the historian of the personal photocollection the album must take
on significance beyond what Bill intended as its creator. By tracing episodes depicted throughout
— men in the training camps, fighting in Flanders, on leave and mates posing outside barracks—
a sense of the collective experiences of these men and the importance of their friendships is
evoked. This takes the audience beyond the immediate visual nature of each photograph. In these
photographs the 'participants present themselves directly to the camera in an act of celebratory
cooperation'. A sense of mateship and family is also developed.
Perhaps it is not surprising that included in the album are photographs of relatives who were also
at war in the same area. The importance of family is reinforced in the letters Bill sent Jean during
the war. Oddly, in the midst of the photographs of his mates there is a photograph of Bill's father.
As with the photographs of friends and family while on leave, Bill appears to be seeking to bring
a sense of family to the front. Similar sentiments were expressed in the letters and postcards he
sent Jean.
As is the case with any one source, the album gives a skewed view of war. Yet the audience is
still left with a clear insight into the ways in which Bill wanted to experience his experiences to
his loved ones. While it has been acknowledged that it is a vastly different picture from that of
the official history of the First World War, just as the official record is selective so is Bill's
album. His album gives the impression that while at war he spent his leave with married friends
and certainly not at dances or socialising with young women. From other sources, however, there
is evidence that many Australians spent their leave in a much more risque fashion than that
depicted by Bill. Whether or not this was the case with Bill, it is clear that he would not have
wanted this to have been evident to his prospective fiancee. Barthes reminds us that the narrator
of a story — and in this case the photographer — is a character amongst others. Bill has a dual
role as participant and photographer. Questions can be posed on both counts. For example, it
would be useful to know why Bill changed some captions: 'Diggers Repairing Trenches' was
changed to 'Training'. This might have been that the latter makes the war seem less imminent or
he may have wished the album to have a more formal tone.
The album tells us a great deal about how Bill wanted Jean, and others who would see the album,
to view the war and his participation in it. While the sense of mateship during the war has
become mythologised through the Anzac tradition, the feelings that the young soldiers were 'in it
together' is confirmed by the visual record of the personal experiences of this man. Bill's reasons
for selecting events to photograph may have been different. As inferred, these were not images of
the bloodiness and destruction of war: they were safe and comforting images for those who were
worried about their menfolk in war. Yet it must be emphasised that the relationships between
men were a fundamental part of their experiences of war and a significant part of their survival
under difficult conditions. As a result, the private album moves from being a personal
representation of the past to an illustration of the collective experience of the past.
Reproduced with permission of the author Sue Georgevits.