Corinthian Helmet
PHOTOGRAPHED IN the Museum of Cycladic Art at Athens, Greece. Photo:Mountain and available through Wikimedia. The museum listing indicates the helmet is made of bronze and classified as Greek, Early Archaic period, circa 550 BC. The museum description continues: "The Corinthian type of helmet appeared at the end of the 8th century BC and remained in use until the Classical period. This example represents an advanced stage in the development of the type and dates to the second half of the 6th century BC. The development was mainly in the shape, which became progressively more spherical in order to fit better on the head, with larger nose-guard, cheek-pieces and neck-guard. Similar helmets were worn by the Greeks during the Persian Wars. An almost identical example from the Zeus temple at Olympia bears the inscription ΜΙΛΤΙΑΔΕΣ ΑΝΕ(Θ)ΕΚΕΝ (Τ)ΟΙ ΔΙ and is very probably a votive offering by the Athenian general Miltiades after the Marathon battle. © 2008 The Nicholas P. Goulandris Foundation - Museum of Cycladic Art"
Bayeux Tapestry
A DETAIL FROM the Bayeux Tapestry depicting a crucial turning point during the Battle of Hastings (Oct. 14, 1066). Whether the figure in the tapestry—wounded by an arrow to the eye—was intended to represent Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, cannot be proven. The invading army led by Duke William of Normandy prevailed on that day. There have been many photos made of parts of the tapestry. This one came from the web site of Invicta Grammar School, in Maidstone, Kent.
Battle of Waterloo
PAINTING by Felix Philippoteaux (1815? - 1884). "This representation of a square of Highlanders (perhaps the 1/92) receiving cavalry at Waterloo — the time would be mid-afternoon — ruthlessly subordinates reality to artistic convention: the horsemen are arriving much too fast, charging the square head-on instead of lapping round the edges, and actually getting to weapon's reach with the infantry instead of stopping, falling or turning back several horse lengths away." — The Face of Battle © 1976 by John Keegan, originally published in hardcover by The Viking Press, this excerpt taken from the Barnes and Noble Edition (1993), caption on photo following page 178
Russian Soldiers Running
THIS IS ONE of several photos credited to Dmitri Nickolaevich Bal’termants (1912-1990). Although his photos speak volumes, there's not much in circulation about his own life and times. This is from Answers.com: "Dmitri Nickolaevich Bal’termants (b Warsaw, 13 July 1912; d Moscow, 11 June 1990). Russian photographer of Polish birth. He studied mathematics at Moscow State University and worked as a mathematician from 1934 to 1938. A self-taught photographer, he worked for newspapers from 1936 and became a professional photojournalist in 1940. Throughout the Russian involvement in World War II, from 1941 to 1945, he worked as a war correspondent for the daily paper Izvestiya and the Army newspaper Na razgrom vraga, producing emotionally powerful photographs showing the hardships that war brings to ordinary people. The series of photographs Grief and Searching for the Dead (both 1942; see Mr?zkov? and Remes, pp. 61-5) placed him among the best known of war photographers. Taken in Kerch in the Crimea just after the German army had passed through, they portray relatives searching for their dead and crowded around an open mass grave."
Apparently the photos of Bal'termants have been displayed in the traditional manner, but no doubt a wider audience awaits online. Credit to EnglishRussia.com.
Young Russian Soldier
ANOTHER PHOTO by Dmitri Nickolaevich Bal’termants (see above).
Vella Lavella
VELLA LAVELLA is an island in the Solomon group in the Western Pacific. The U.S. Army's web site has a number of excellent historical photographs online, including this one. The accompanying text reads, "Infantrymen of Co. 'I' await the word to advance in pursuit of retreating Japanese forces. Stepping Stone Island on the Vella Lavella Island Front, Southwest Pacific. (13 Sep 43) Signal Corps Photo: 161-43-4081 (Schuman)."
Another Bal'termants and a Photo of ENIAC
ON THE LEFT is another amazing photo by Bal'termants. Students of photojournalism and graphic composition: Look at the diagonal lines in this one, all supported by that single, willful vertical line with a human foot attached. Magnificent. On the right is a photo of ENIAC, forerunner of the computer display you are looking at right now. This corner of human experience began as scientists attempted to visualize an unfolding nuclear chain reaction, nanosecond by nanosecond.
){kind=link}
Murmansk 1942
ANOTHER STRIKING PHOTO from EnglishRussia.com. The accompanying text there reads, "This is a real, unprocessed shot, made in Murmansk, Russia 1942, during World War II, real moose, real Nazi planes bombing Murmansk." Those who scrutinize silhouettes might be able to discern ME-109s and antlers more akin to those of a caribou.