33. Town of Vaux. (near Château Thierry) June 30 day before American attack, June 30, 1918

Plate 33. Vaux before American attack, from an album of World War I aerial photography assembled by Edward Steichen, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Plate 33, from an untitled album of World War I photographs, June 30, 1918

Gelatin silver print
Gift of William Kistler, 1977.709

While operating close to the zone of advance was important, this also meant that facilities were often improvised. Each unit was assigned a photographic truck and trailer that served as a darkroom, but printing often occurred in spaces “found, stolen or imagined” as Steichen put it.[1] In an article written after the war, Steichen recalled that the Photographic Section prepared all the July 1918 photographs of Vaux and the Château Thierry sector in a tent:

Inside of one end of the tent a wooden framework was set up and this covered with tar paper and opaque curtains to make it light-tight. It was also just about as air-tight, but men worked steadily in shifts in this hotbox for six consecutive days and nights—and came out alive.[2]

This photograph, from the 5th Photographic Section, shows the inside of a printing lab—complete with portable drying rack and washing trays. To the left a portion of the shed has been blocked off with tar paper to create a darkroom. Water for rinsing the prints was often hauled in buckets from nearby streams.

Laboratory of the 5th Photo Section, France, 1918-1919. National Archives and Records Administration. Image courtesy of Harry Kidd.

This photograph shows the 12th Photographic Section in front of one of the mobile darkroom trailers. Each man poses with a piece of the equipment needed for the process—from an airman with a camera to a lab technician wearing an apron.

12th Photo Section in France, 1918-1919. National Archives and Records Administration. Image courtesy of Harry Kidd.

Inscribed recto, on album page, lower left, in black/brown ink: “Town of Vaux. (near Chateau Thierry) / June 30 day before American attack”; printed recto, on album page, lower right, in black ink: “Photographic Section. / Air Service. American Expeditionary Forces.”; inscribed recto, on album page, lower right, in blue ink: “33”; unmarked verso

[1] Edward Steichen, “American Aerial Photography at the Front,” The Camera: The Magazine for Photographers (July 1919), p. 363.

[2] Edward Steichen, “American Aerial Photography at the Front,” The Camera: The Magazine for Photographers (July 1919), p. 363.