Battle Fields WW1
The Battle of Verdun or how nature covers the traces.
Why look for traces from the First World War? The answer comes from my general interest in traces. Traces as silent witnesses of past human activity.
I find everything left behind by people interesting. Be it cultural or industrial heritage, old crafts, or dilapidated factories. Photography is a very direct, immediate means of recording traces. Through photography I can also preserve and show that legacy outside the location itself.
My photos clearly show that the traces disappear, and that nature eventually takes over the artificial. I was very surprised to find a completely different landscape than what I knew from images from a hundred years ago. No clearly visible death and destruction, no blackened plains. You now need some degree of imagination for that when you walk around there. The trenches gradually became filled with earth and leaves again and every year they became a little shallower. The millions of bomb craters disappear, and the landscape becomes smooth again, in another hundred years the photos may be the only witnesses.
The fascination with the Great War, the way in which it was conducted, the ruthlessness of the government leaders which took extreme forms, and in the sense of the numbers of subjects who were deliberately hunted to their deaths. The complete lack of results these sacrifices yielded. This already fascinated me, especially the remains of the major battles, such as the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Passchendaele and, as seen here, the remains of the Battle of Verdun.
Walking through the forests in eastern France of what is known as the Saillant de Saint Mihiel you will come across trenches and bunkers in endless numbers.
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Batterie de Duzey - Ammunition tunnel for the "Lange Max"
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Flirey, destroyed church in destroyed village
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Fort de Vaux
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Haumont, destroyed village
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Grottes de la Falouse, Horses hospital
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Fort de Douaumont
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Saint Baussant Allemand, German trenches
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Fort de Douaumont
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Tranchée des Bavarois et de Roffignac, German trenches
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Beaumont en Verdunois, destroyed village
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Fort de Douaumont
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Les Éparges
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Firing location for the "Lange Max"
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Langs D908 bij Braquis
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Tranchées Butte de Vauquois
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Aprémont
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Remnants of the cemetery of La Calonne
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Haumont près Samogneux, destroyed village
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Abri 2408 of bunker TD3 langs de D913D
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Saint Baussant Allemand, German trenches
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Les Éparges, bomb crater
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Butte de Vauquois
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Vaux Devant Damloup, destroyed village
Battle of Verdun, 1916, Fort de Vaux
