Playfair

The Playfair Letters Project: "Letters from Ross Campbell Playfair
to his wife Mary (nee Ferris)"

Aerochrome

A Conversation with Richard Mosse: "Mark Twain’s 1905 political satire King Leopold’s Soliloquy portrays the Belgian king’s defense against the contemporary tide of human rights activism in the Congo Free State. ‘The Kodak’ it reads, ‘has been a sore calamity to us.’ More than a century later, I wanted to bring ‘the Kodak’ back to the Congo. But I also wanted to bring the Kodak to bear on the Kodak. I wanted to examine the medium itself.

Kodak Aerochrome was developed during the Cold War in conjunction with the US military. Flying at altitude with a nosemounted aerial camera, this film was able to cut through the ultraviolet haze, reading the infrared light spectrum bounced off the earth below. Chlorophyll in the landscape’s foliage reflects infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. Meanwhile, the earth and other contours absorb it. The green camouflage netting above hidden enemy sites absorbs infrared light while the surrounding vegetation bounces it directly back into the sky. In this way, the film technology was used to reveal an enemy’s location. By reading the landscape’s heat, the military had a way to perceive its hidden enemy."

Human Torpedoes

Kaiten type Human Torpedoes: "were the first Japanese 'Special Attack' weapons, vehicles whose operational use involved the certain death of the crew."

Fovant Badges Society

WW1 military badges: "Carved in the chalk downlands of Wiltshire."

Plastic surgery

Project facade: "The First World War was a war dominated by high explosives and heavy artillery. Battlefield casualties included an unprecedented number with horrific facial injuries - injuries so severe the men were commonly unrecognizable to loved ones and friends. Often unable to see, hear, speak eat or drink, they struggled to re-assimilate back into civilian life. This secondary tragedy - the living unable to 'live' - catalyzed Surgeon Sir Harold Gillies to transform the fledgling discipline of plastic surgery based on his unrivalled observation of the profoundly wounded and his ability to push the parameters of the profession beyond all known techniques."

Zulu

WalterFilm Online Photo Museum - Yousuf Karsh: "ZULU, a film about warfare between the British and Zulu warriors in 1879, was directed by Cy Enfield, and its cast included Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, and Michael Caine. It was released to considerable acclaim on 17 June 1964, and it is now considered something of a classic in its genre.

Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) is famous for his iconic portraits, such as those of Churchill, Hemingway, and Einstein. When he was given the commission to go and do the on-set photography of this film, he focused not on the white movie stars, but rather on the native Zulu people, and, in the process, produced what appears to be his only extensive series of ethnographic portraits."

Designation

US Military Aviation Designation Systems: "This site is devoted to the various systems used by the U.S. military aviation to designate all types of equipment."

russiamania

Nazi Occupation Photos: "Russian City Kharkov"

Princess Iron Fan

Princess Iron Fan (鐵扇公主): "Produced by the Wan brothers in the midst of war, Princess Iron Fan is the first feature length animation made in China. We follow the Monkey King and his friends on their journey to the west. As they reach Fire Mountain they are unable to pass because of the fire but learn that a special iron fan can quench the flames. However, the fan belongs to Princess Iron Fan and she will not willingly lend it to them..."

The Pitiful Elephants

Starving the Elephants: "The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo".
[image - Cover of “Kawaisōna Zō”, the most popular version of the myths about the Ueno Zoo slaughter in 1943]