@historicalfirearms / www.historicalfirearms.info
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Tate Liverpool’s Don McCullin exhibition. McCullin is one of my favourite photographers not just for his incredible combat and conflict photography but also for his street photography which focuses on the hardships and lives of people.
Check out the video below:
Also check out my accompanying article here, which includes links to some interesting interviews with McCullin!
While not a cutaway this astounding image of an 'exploded' AK-47 is in fact a photograph not a computer render. Taken by the photographer Johanna Parkin, it won the The Association of Photographers' Award in 2011.
The photograph depicts an original Soviet AK-47 stripped and fully disassembled along with its magazine. The oblique angle gives it a sense of motion and really captures the simplicity Mikhail Kalashnikov’s iconic rifle.
Type III AK-47 (source)
The rifle is the Type III pattern AK-47 manufactured between 1954 and 1959 with the milled receiver and various improvements over the Type II and the original stamped Type I. The initial three types were replaced in 1959 by the Avtomat Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy or AKM which again had an improved stamped receiver.
Image Source
This extraordinary set of photographs was taken 40 years after the Battle of Waterloo, possibly in 1858. All of the men photographed wear their original uniforms and proudly wear the Saint Helena medal, issued in August 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the revolution and the empire by the decree of Emperor Napoleon III.
The men represent almost every aspect of Napoleon’s army from the Engineers and infantry to the Old Guard and the Mameluke de la Garde. As well as Chasseur, dragoons and hussars. Veterans of Napoleon’s armies continued to revere their commander even after he died in 1821 and marched in Paris each year on the anniversary of his death. By the time these photographs these men would have been in their 60s and 70s and seen a lifetime of war and revolution rock France from the 1780s through to the 1850s.
WWI Now & Then: 1917-1919
The Guardian has unveiled its second set of 'now and then' photographs of sites on the Western Front of World War One. They range from a bomb damage in Paris, to the destruction of Ypres and the building of the Cenotaph in London in 1919. A number of the photographs show some of the less obvious impacts instead of a war torn French village one photograph shows wounded British and Indian troops convalescing. Others show the victory celebrations that took place in London and Paris.
Each contemporary photograph is juxtaposed with a recent photograph showing the two sites 100 years apart - some of the landscapes forever changed by war.
Click here to view the part one here and part two here
Muzzle Blast: Ballistic Photography
The brilliant photographs above were taken by Finnish photographer Herra Kuulapaa. Using high speed cameras he has captured the amazing high resolutions photographs of muzzle blasts and bullets leaving the firearms' barrels. The photographs are captured just microseconds after the weapon has been fired capturing the projectile just as it leaves the muzzle. The images stunningly capture gasses and ignition flames leaving the frames of the revolvers.
The photographs show the firing of firearms including: a .45ACP Glock 21, a .50AE Desert Eagle, an AR, a .44 Magnum Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan and the huge Smith & Wesson Model 500 firing.
Kuulapaa's photographs are used to study the transition phase ballistics of firearms as they have just fired mapping blast from different muzzle breaks and examining a projectile's stability as it leaves the muzzle.
Click here to see more of Herra Kuulapaa's impressive work.
Living Photographs: Independence Day
Above are some of the breathtaking 'living photographs' choreographed and created by British-born American photographer Arthur Mole. Mole's photographs incorporated thousands of men forming complex shapes including flags, the Liberty Bell, and an American Bald Eagle as well as divisional and regimental logos for units like the US Marine Corps and the 1st Division.
The photographs included upto 30,000 men and were taken from tall towers where Mole could get a clear shot and also compose the shapes he wanted (often calling through a megaphone or signaling with flags).
In honour of American Independence Day the above are a collection of Mole's most patriotic photographs. Taken between 1917 and 1920 Mole took advantage of the hundreds of thousands of men called up during the First World War composing his photographs at major US Army camps like Camp Dix and Camp Custer. The first photograph of the US shield pictures some 30,000 men while the Liberty Bell photograph is made up of 25,000 carefully placed troops. Photographs on an amazing scale, which even today would be difficult to create.
Famed combat photographer, Robert Capa.
Rare World War One Colour Photographs by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
Last week I posted some rare colour autochrome photographs taken of German troops during World War One by Hans Hildenbrand. The photographs above were taken by his French counterpart Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, who photographed French and British forces throughout the war. The photographs above were predominantly taken during the early battles of the war, including the Battle of the Marne.
The first photograph shows a Farman MF.11 reconnaissance plane which had been adopted by the Armée de l’Air just 2 months before the outbreak of the war. Also used by the British Royal Flying Corps as a bomber it was removed from service in 1915, as it quickly became outdated.
Gervais-Courtellemont also took many photographs of France’s colonial troops, whom contributed some half a million men by the end of the war. Pictured above are Algerian infantry, Senegalese Tirailleurs, Moroccan riflemen and Spahis. As well as the outlandishly uniformed Zouaves other units also seen included men of the 13th Régiment de Chasseurs Alpins, elite specialist troops training in alpine and mountain warfare, as well as a quick-firing Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897 - better known as the French 75.
Gervais-Courtellemont, like Hildenbrand, also documented the evolution of the war torn landscape. The second photograph shows the heavily damaged village of Sermaize-les-Bains during the Battle of the Marne.
Images Source
Rare World War One Colour Photographs by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
Last week I posted some rare colour autochrome photographs taken of German troops during World War One by Hans Hildenbrand. The photographs above were taken by his French counterpart Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, who photographed French and British forces throughout the war. The photographs above were predominantly taken during the early battles of the war, including the Battle of the Marne.
The first photograph shows a Farman MF.11 reconnaissance plane which had been adopted by the Armée de l'Air just 2 months before the outbreak of the war. Also used by the British Royal Flying Corps as a bomber it was removed from service in 1915, as it quickly became outdated.
Gervais-Courtellemont also took many photographs of France's colonial troops, whom contributed some half a million men by the end of the war. Pictured above are Algerian infantry, Senegalese Tirailleurs, Moroccan riflemen and Spahis. As well as the outlandishly uniformed Zouaves other units also seen included men of the 13th Régiment de Chasseurs Alpins, elite specialist troops training in alpine and mountain warfare, as well as a quick-firing Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897 - better known as the French 75.
Gervais-Courtellemont, like Hildenbrand, also documented the evolution of the war torn landscape. The second photograph shows the heavily damaged village of Sermaize-les-Bains during the Battle of the Marne.
Rare World War One Colour Photographs by Hans Hildenbrand
Hans Hildenbrand was one of 19 official German photographers documenting the war, but the only one to shoot in colour. The subject matter includes numerous trench shots showing soldiers standing to, relaxing and manning a Maxim Gun. While others show supply depots backdropped by the ruins of towns and villages. Hildenbrand's images were taken mostly in the Alsace and Champagne sectors during 1915 and 1916.
Hildenbrand's film was less sensitive than other contemporary films and required longer exposures as such his subjects would have had to remain still while he took their photograph, meaning that many of the photographs would have been somewhat staged. But this does not detract significantly from their insight into life in the German trenches. Arguably the vividness of the photographs' colours bring the period to life much faster than the black and white contemporary photographs were are used to seeing of the First World War.
Gervais-Courtellemont's photograph of a French gun crew c.1914
While Hildenbrand was the only German photographer to use a colour process during the war he has a counterpart in French photographer Jules Gervais-Courtellemont. Gervais-Courtellemont used the Lumiere's Autochrome technique and took photographs during the battles of the Marne and Verdun. Both Gervais-Courtellemont and Hildenbrand later worked for National Geographic after the war,
Images Source
125th Anniversary of the Kodak No. 1
Kodak has released some original exposures taken by Kodak No.1. Launched in 1888 the No.1 came with 100 exposures of George Eastman’s new roll-film loaded into the camera. It was one of the earliest portable camera which was available to the general public, costing $25 in 1889. Once the photographer had taken all 100 exposures they would send the whole camera back to Kodak who would develop the previous film and send back the reloaded camera, this cost $10 all together. There are some great snaps including candid shots, trains a baby elephant and of course people posing for the camera.
