2. World War I: Causes
Militarism: Cultures believed strength and
power brought honor. Britain and Germany
were in an arms
race to create
more deadly
weapons and
larger armies
3. World War I: Causes
Alliances: All
the countries
of Europe
were trapped
in a web of
alliances – if
your ally went
to war, you
had to follow
4. World War I: Causes
Imperialism: all
European countries
had scrambled for
years to take
colonies in Africa
and Asia. Britain
and France had
vast empires,
Germany was late
to the game and
rivalry was fierce
5. World War I:
Causes
Nationalism: feelings of
cultural supremacy and
extreme patriotism
gave rise to hatred of
other cultures and
over-confidence in
one’s own ability to win
7. Mechanization of War
Heavy Artillery: large, heavy, transportable
cannon-like weaponry; could fire shells over
12 miles
8. Mechanization of War
Barbed Wire:
used as protection
to prevent opposing
infantry from
charging; could not
be defeated by
heavy artillery, but
later would be
defeated by the tank
9. Trench Warfare
All of the weapons of
WWI were DEFENSIVE
in nature, so very
quickly the war became
a stalemate: after 4
years of war, millions of
soldiers were dead, and
the two armies had not
advanced more than a
few milesTrenches were dug for miles
upon miles facing each other
10. No Man’s Land
The area between
the trenches –
periodically each
side would send a
charge through the
center and the
soldiers would be
mowed down
11. Poison Gas
• Deadly chlorine gas
and later mustard
gas became lethal
killers as they were
unleashed upon
opposing armies
• Gas masks became
standard issue
12. Shell Shock
• Psychological Response to emotional
trauma of the trenches and shelling
• Some symptoms: physical
abnormalities (tics and tremors,
impaired vision and hearing, and
paralysis) to emotional manifestations
(panic, anxiety, insomnia, and a near-
catatonic state)
13. Dadaism
• Disillusioned artists reacting to brutality
of WWI
• Embraced chaos and irrationality
• Disgusted with convention and tradition
- these things had led the world into
slaughter
• Not art but anti-art
• Used shock tactics, outrageous
provocations
14. Dadaism - Techniques
• Used prefabricated materials
• Left many artistic decisions to chance
• Expanded definition of art to include the
stuff of modern life—newspapers,
magazines, ticket stubs, mechanical
parts, food wrappers, pipes,
advertisements, light bulbs, and so on.
18. German Expressionism
• Tried to show not how the world looked, but
how the world felt - conveyed anxiety and
yearnings
• Raw, provocative, exposed ugliness of
reality
• Cynicism toward ruling classes, disgust with
war planners, highly satirical
• Emphasized not strategies of generals, but
effect on individuals who fought and died
19. Expressionist Techniques
• No attempt at realism
• Distortion of form/twisted objects
• Deployment of strong colors
• Odd juxtapositions
• Grotesque images
• Geometric shapes
• Exaggerated imagery
• surreal, eerie atmosphere, anti-heroic
characters, and elements of evil and betrayal
35. World War II - Causes
• Treaty of Versailles humiliated
Germany
• Enormous reparations and Great
Depression sent German economy into
a tailspin
• Hyperinflation, Unemployment,
Desperation
• Germany turned to Adolf Hitler and
Fascism
36. Fascism
• political movement that emphasized loyalty to
the state and obedience to its leader who had
absolute authority
• promotes
extreme
nationalism and
militarism
• includes
denial of
individual rights
37. Mobile War
• Advances in technology: no more
trench warfare
• Fast moving planes and tanks to attack,
followed by massive infantry, along with
radios for communication allowed for
“lightning war” or blitzkrieg
• In France, 1940, Germans crushed
combined forces of four nations in less
than six weeks
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43. Civilians as Targets
• Mobile war meant larger war zones (including
residential areas near factories); Civilians
were deliberately targeted by air forces
• Over 60 million
people died in
WWII;
About 40 million
of those were
civilians
59. [Some photographers are] “far too busy with the
compositional aspects of [their] pictures—with finding the
‘grace’ and ‘beauty’ in the twisted forms of [their]
anguished subjects. And this beautification of tragedy
results in pictures that ultimately reinforce our passivity
toward the experience they reveal. To aestheticize is the
fastest way to anesthetize the feeling of those who are
witnessing it. Beauty is a call to admiration, not to action
….”
“The mission of photography is to explain man to man and
each man to himself” – Eduard Steichen
“If we’re big enough to fight a war, we should be big
enough to look at it.” – Kenneth Jareke
60. Questions for Discussion:
1.Can photographs give a voice to
innocent victims without exploiting their
suffering, invading their privacy, or
stripping them of their dignity?
1.Do photos of atrocities turn us into
voyeuristic spectators of others’ pain?
1.If we witness these images but take no
action, are we complicit?
