wwII

Righting the Record on Photos of Wartime Europe

A war in Europe instantly creates parallels with the world wars for people in the UK and other European countries. This connection represents what most people know and are taught about conflict on the continent.

Kenneth McKenzie’s Lost Photos from World War II

I met a man who owned a ton of his uncle's photos he took during his time in World War II. The images by Kenneth McKenzie start in Vancouver and Banff where they did their training, then all across Europe.

This Famous WWII Photographer Just Beat COVID-19 at 97 Years Old

In the spirit of spreading some much-needed good news, the Associated Press recently revealed that Tony Vaccaro—the famed World War II photographer whose professional career spanned almost 80 years and 500,000 images—caught and survived coronavirus at the ripe old age of 97-years-old.

Historic Print Collection Including Rare Negative of Hiroshima Bombing is Selling for $2 Million on eBay

There's an unbelievable auction currently live on eBay that might rank as the most expensive item we've ever seen on the site. Uncovered by the folks over at The Phoblographer, the auction is offering hundreds of historic WWII prints, a Kodak Pocket camera, and an extremely rare negative of the Hiroshima bombing, all for the whopping buy-it-now price of $2,000,000.33.

Portraits of Honor: Photographing the Last of the WWII Veterans

This is a year for monumental anniversaries of events in American history—particularly the WWII 75th anniversaries of the D-Day invasion, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge. With those in mind, I started a project in April photographing WWII veterans, knowing that the numbers still surviving are dropping rapidly each day.

Rare Color Photos from World War II

Due to costs and scarcity, the vast majority of photos captured during World War II were shot on black-and-white film. Some images were captured in color, however, and those rare shots reveal what scenes from the Second World War looked like to people in them.

Meet The Man Who Photographed the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6th, 1945 Russell Gackenbach captured a historic, horrifying event on his personal camera. From the bowels of an Air Force bomber, he snapped two pictures of the first atomic bombing when a 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb named 'Little Boy' obliterated the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

Ansel Adams’ Pictures of an American Relocation Camp During WWII

Ansel Adams is best known for his breathtaking landscape photos, but he photographed much more than nature during his decades-long career. In 1943, already the best-known American photographer, Adams visited the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, one of the relocation camps the US gathered Japanese-Americans into during World War II.

D-Day Photos Recreated Through a War Reenactment

If you want to experience what it's like to shoot as a combat photographer, but don't want to actually risk getting shot at, you can look into photographing war reenactments. Lucas Ryan is a photographer who shoots reenactments, and last year he covered D-Day Conneaut, one of the world's premier D-Day reenactment events.

These World War II Photos Were Actually Captured During a Modern Reenactment

Conflict photography is typically a dangerous, traumatizing and, at least in part, heroic profession that puts you in the line of fire with only a camera as a weapon.

But as Penn State grad and former Onward State photographer Mitchell Wilston recently demonstrated to great effect, you don't need to put yourself in harm's way to capture the kinds of gritty, black-and-white conflict photography that has become iconic through the ages.

70-Year-Old WWII Foxhole Photos Turn Out to Be a Hoax

Last week, we and many others ran the story of a rather astounding collection of photographs that were supposedly discovered in a foxhole where the infamous Battle of the Bulge took place.

Allegedly found by U.S. Navy Captain Mark Anderson and accompanying historian Jean Muller, the story goes that the duo found then scanned the images in an old camera, presenting them to the world seventy years after they were captured and left behind by a soldier who had been KIA. But that, it seems, is not the truth.

Soldier’s Camera and Photos from Battle of The Bulge Found in Foxhole 70 Years Later

Update: Turns out this story was a hoax. Head on over to our update and apology to catch up on the latest.

The Battle of the Bulge is known as one of the most deadly and influential battles of WWII. Taking place over the course of five weeks, this surprise attack by the Germans caught allied forces off-guard, causing massive casualties, especially among U.S. Troops.

Among the 89,000 casualties was a soldier named Louis J. Archambeau, a Chicago native who left behind an interesting surprise in a foxhole he had been taking refuge in during the cold weather and rough artillery fire.

The Last of The Liberators: D-Day Veterans Photographed in the Locations where They Fought

It might be a few days after the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Invasions of Normandy, but in no way does the belated delivery of this powerful photo series diminish its impact.

Photographed by Robin Savage, The Last of The Liberators is a collection of portraits of the last British D-Day veterans. But what makes these portraits special isn't just the people photographed, but they places they were photographed in.

Minox Riga: A Subminiature Spy Camera from the 1930s

In 1938, after many prototypes, the first 8x11mm subminiature camera was brought to market by German inventor Walter Zapp. It was called the Minox Riga, and the tiny camera actually saw espionage action in both WWII and the Cold War.

WWII Prisoners Built Improvised Cameras to Document Their Lives

Ever since photography was invented in the 1800s, there have been people willing to risk life and limb to bring images to the public eye. Among the craziest examples are prisoners of war during World War II -- people who built makeshift cameras out of smuggled parts in order to capture what life was like inside their prison camps.

WWII Photo Reconnaissance Pilot Reacts to Footage of Himself from 1944

In honor of Memorial Day, a couple of months ago, the folks behind the Sundance Film Festival decided to dig up a short honorable mention winner from 2007 and put it up on YouTube. Called Spitfire 944, the film show WWII Photo Reconnaissance pilot Lt Col. John S. Blyth telling his story and reacting to footage of a crash landing he made all the way back in 1944 that he had never seen before.

AMMO: Cross Section Photos of Bullets

In October of 2012, LA-based photographer Sabine Pearlman found herself ensconced in a Swiss WWII bunker photographing 900 different "specimens" of cross sectioned ammunition. Her resulting photo series, AMMO, shows the beauty and craftsmanship that went into creating these destructive little pieces of engineering.

The Life and Work of Wayne Miller

Last Wednesday, at the age of 94, former Magnum president and photographer Wayne Miller passed away at his home in California. For decades, Miller had photographed the human condition at its best and worst, with a stated goal to "photograph mankind and explain man to man."

The above video, posted by photographer Theo Rigby a couple of years ago, serves as a reminder of the life and work of this phenomenal photographer.

Redditors Pitch In to Help Restore an 87-Year-Old Grandfather’s WWII Photo

Redditor Steven Withey's grandfather Derek is an 87-year-old WWII veteran who served in the Royal Navy, and a little while back he showed his grandson a badly damaged Navy photo (of a photo) of himself as a 20-year-old.

He had showed him the photo in the hopes that his technologically savvy grandson could maybe touch it up a bit, but given the massive creases and tears he didn't have much hope. It turns out he needn't have worried, because in this particular case, Reddit came to the rescue.

Using a Radioactive WWII Bomber Lens on a DSLR with a 3D-Printed Adapter

Originally produced for the US military in WW2, the Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm f/2.5 is a large-format monster of a lens. Mounted in bombers, facing down at Europe, this lens was sold to the US government for the price of a family car. It found its way into military surplus after the war, and was widely used in journalism and by professional photographers.

Browse Through a 160,000 Photo Archive of Finland During WWII

In the past, we've shared several online archives that give you access to a huge number of historical and historically significant photos online.

PhotosNormandie offered up 3,000+ CC photos from WWII, the NYC Department of Records compiled a database of over 870,000 photos of "the greatest city on earth," and now the Finnish Defense Forces have put up an online archive of their own, showcasing almost 160,000 wartime photos from Finland during WWII.

One Man’s Fight to Get a Photo Published, and How it Changed Photojournalism

A recent article in the New York Times tells the story of one Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple -- better known as Cal -- to whom photojournalists in particular owe a great debt of gratitude. Mr. Whipple passed away last month at the age of 94, but his quest to get one particular photo published in 1943 has left a legacy that will last for many years to come.