The personal panorama of The Great War

“Nature is hit, but at the same time nature takes over again; nature plays an important role in war,” says Vanfleteren. “There’s the mud and the earth of the trenches, mud roads, mud flowing around because of explosions and spread all over the front line, the disorder of soldiers buried in the mud. Water is, evidently, a central element in this war. The flooding of the Yzer river, not only as a means of defence but also its horrifying effects on thousands of soldiers on the other side.

“Then there’s air. The First World War is the first war in which aerial photographs were taken. It was the war of the first air strikes. But it also refers to the air we breathe, the gas that was used during the gas attacks. Lastly, fire refers to fire power, to the explosions and blasts that disfigured our landscape for eternity.”    

Built around these themes, acting as frames for private shots, the book also highlights propaganda. Vanfleteren says, “Found in private albums as well, it’s reportage pictures or pure propaganda, pasted by people in their albums between their personal shots.” Chielens adds: “We can see the contrast between pictures that tell an intimate story, the personal perspective and the tough images that show the war the way rulers have always wanted us to see it. That’s needed as well; war cannot go without, it adds nuance.”

For Vanfleteren the making of the book sometimes felt like a personal encounter with the past. “From a professional point of view,” he says, “it’s interesting to see how other photographers depict the war. But something else happens as well. I started noticing talent emerging. On some pictures taken by ordinary soldiers you can see the artistic eye being born. The picture is all of a sudden framed and there is a composition. These soldiers in war suddenly go beyond documenting, beyond the facts, and try to capture beauty in those moments. That is beautiful.

“I’m not an activist on the barricades, but I believe in the power of showing what I see. That is my task as a photographer. It was theirs as well.”

The city is fairly calm at the time and functions mostly as a place of retreat for frontline soldiers, a sick bay and a store. But among Germans Ghent is also known as “the front paradise”, acting as an open-air, large-scale army brothel. Wandt keeps a journal about the daily life of Ghenteneers and Germans during the war. In 1919 his account is published, in episodes, in a Berlin newspaper, and a year later published in full in Dutch. In one harsh, protracted complaint, Wandt accuses his superiors of greed, corruption, cruelty and debauchery.

After publication, Wandt is accused of more than 50 counts of slander, summoned and convicted. But after an international socialist campaign, he is pardoned. For almost a century, his account had been gathering dust. But now, on the initiative of Flemish photographer Michiel Hendryckx, Het Frontparadijs has been republished (again in Dutch).

“A year ago, by chance, I was holding Wandt’s book in my hands,” Hendryckx says in the book’s preface. “I was convinced from the start that this was a unique document. In testimonies of the Great War that focus on the front, there often is a tone of misplaced grandeur and epic. Wandt is different. Without talking about the front and battles, he testifies about the gruesome essence of war. Dead sharp, he demonstrates how, nearing the end, all values fade and man falls back on his primary desires of greed, cruelty and selfishness.”  

The Great War 1914-18 (€35.50, text in Dutch, English and French) and Het Frontparadijs (€29.50) are both published by Hannibal Publishers.