Human photographs from World War I

These Mole and Thomas classic photographs were taken during and after World War I as part of the U.S. support the war campaign. The photographs must have taken hours to setup and provide a nice contrast to the naked human photographs that our generation will be remembered for 90 years from now!

The photograph above was taken in 1918 with the help of 30,000 soldiers from Camp Custer in Battle Creek Michigan. I wonder if this could be pulled off in this day and age with the short attention spans and busy schedules.

This human Statue of Liberty was taken at Camp Dodge in Iowa and included 18,000 men.

The Liberty Bell below was the most difficult to shoot as they needed 11 times more men for the beam section that the bell hangs from to maintain proportionality.

On another note, as I checked out these photographs my mom emailed to me earlier today it struck me how fortunate we are to be able to even be able see these incredible photos from the early 1900’s. No trip to a museum, or art gallery, or a postcard or print… just a quick email address and a click. If the men and women in these photographs could only see them like we’re seeing them.