Amateur combat photography of WWI: was it commonplace?

by ConorIRL1595

In Storm of Steel, the author Ernst Junger mentions several times a camera carried by Kius, one of his fellow Lieutenants in the German front line. This includes one mention of the camera being broken, meaning several photos of their assault on an embankment during the 1918 offensive were lost.

I was under the impression that combat photography of this period was extremely rare, but the mention of Kius, a low ranking infantry officer, taking photographs mid-assault implies that it was at least not unheard of. Were amateur photographers on the front lines relatively common? How were their photos received at the time, and are many available for viewing now? Or did these mainly stay in private collections, passed down in families?

TheWellSpokenMan

It was perhaps far more common then you might think. In 1912, the Kodak Vest Pocket camera went on the market and was notable as being small enough to comfortably fit in, you guessed it, your vest pocket. Many British and Commonwealth soldiers carried these as they could easily buy them while on leave in London and could be comfortably carried in one of their many uniform pockets.

Photography in the front lines was officially restricted to official photographers as the various military authorities could choose which photos would be published and which wouldn't. Unauthorised photography was forbidden because the authorities didn't want to risk images of the realities of the war on the Western Front getting back to the Home Front. Regardless, countless numbers of amateur photographers documented their war and many of those photos entered family collections and have been passed on to museums and memorials.