{"id":2195,"date":"2023-10-09T10:25:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T09:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/warephemera\/?p=2195"},"modified":"2023-10-17T16:01:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T15:01:45","slug":"what-happens-when-first-world-war-postcards-and-art-come-together-by-alan-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/warephemera\/what-happens-when-first-world-war-postcards-and-art-come-together-by-alan-ward\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when First World War postcards and art come together, by Alan Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Alan Ward is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Manchester. Many of his commissions are informed by research and engagement, whether historical or community led. Archives and artefacts, both personal and institutional, have become a significant reference point for exploration and reflection on ideas centred on the construction of historical narratives, identities, and individual and collective memories. Commissions and projects have included: historic building residencies; the first written rules of football; the Clarion cycling movement; and exploring miscellaneous on-line purchases. We met Alan at the 2023 Memory Studies Association conference and are excited to feature his work.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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La Vojo Returne (The Way Back): <\/strong>Or as Susan Sontag said \u201cTo collect photographs is to collect the World\u201d (1)<\/strong><\/h4>

This blog is about an artistic project that is very much a work in progress. At some point there might be a more detailed analysis of its narrative, but for now this will give a brief overview of its origins and development to date. I hope it reveals the potential for both creative and social engagement using ephemeral artefacts as a touchstone for a wider discourse around a \u2018sense of place\u2019 and \u2018memory\u2019, both core interests in my artistic practice.<\/p>

The project is titled \u2018La Vojo Returne\u2019, after the Esperanto first-edition translated book of E. M. Remarque\u2019s Der Weg Zur\u00fcck <\/em>(The Way Back<\/em> or The Road Back<\/em>). (2)\u00a0It is commonly regarded as the sequel to his 1929 novel\u00a0All Quiet on the Western Front<\/em>, and reflects on what it is to be human \u2013 family, loss, transience, dislocation and memory\u00a0\u2013 and whether anything has been learnt as the consequence of the Great War.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Lockdown project to identify the location of a photograph<\/h4>

In early 2019, I had just completed a five-year Arts Council England funded project based on a glass negative collection I purchased on eBay. (3) Then the COVID pandemic struck and all life was interrupted. As a slightly compulsive collector of seemingly random photographs and negatives, and in the isolation of the pandemic restrictions, I began to look at a few of the things I\u2019d acquired. One of these was a very small batch of 7 celluloid square negatives with the minimal attribution \u2018Taken by German medical officer, WWI\u2019. I\u2019d always thought they were a bit odd, a bit Dada<\/a>, and for that reason I\u2019d bought them. I felt sure one negative in particular would allow me to identify the location in which they were taken. Google reverse imaging gave me absolutely no results, and to cut a long story short, I used a combination of maps, Google Street View and on-line antique postcard websites, to systematically cross-check locations along or just behind the Western Front. This was a painfully slow process, but I \u00a0finally identified the location as Grandpr\u00e9, in the German-occupied Ardennes region of France.<\/p>

It remained undamaged throughout the war, until it was liberated by the American Army at the very end of the fighting. Today Grandpr\u00e9 has a population of around 550, it has a rich historical past, but could now be described as a quiet rural town.<\/p>

Once I had located it, I realised that there were multiple German postcards representing and documenting the same place. They mapped and created an extraordinarily detailed Grandpr\u00e9. Sat in isolation at my computer, they appeared to represent the most complete picture of the town, far better than French postcard collections, pre- or post-war, and even the contemporary Google Street View portal. I found this liminal moment a fascinating representation and began to collect these German depictions of a French town.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Figure 1: Original negative (left) and one of the first postcards found taken from same viewpoint.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Collecting postcards<\/h4>

The postcards, as ephemeral objects, fall into two typologies; mass-produced mechanically printed images and photographic, of the type produced by itinerant photographers and their travelling darkrooms.<\/p>

The mass-produced ones, made by a range of publishers from across Germany, for the War-machine, are generally printed in a version of continuous tone rotogravure. (4) This means they can be scanned, enlarged and visually interrogated without significant degradation in quality, revealing fascinating details. There is a wonderful filmic quality to these details when enlarged. The subject matter generally portrays street scenes, soldiers relaxing in the urban environments, key buildings, and landscapes.<\/p>

The photographic cards are direct contact prints from negatives and therefore offer even better detail. They are often personal, commissioned by individual solders or small groups, to send home. Or they mark key moments and events, for example a large funeral procession of a significant soldier, which appears on reseller sites quite regularly \u2013 I have three different moments from that.<\/p>

The chemical process of making a photographic contact print means these can vary far more widely in look through the degradation of time, storage, and the less than fastidious fixing of the prints for a purpose that wasn\u2019t considered of archival importance at the time.<\/p>

The vast majority of postcards acquired are Grandpr\u00e9-based or its environs and supercede early text-based Feldpost <\/em>(Field Service) (5) postcards issued by the military authorities, where soldiers deleted a series of pre-printed messages as appropriate. I have found none of these from Grandpr\u00e9, which is unsurprising, as the censorship constraints of the medium limited identification of their origin.<\/p>

My collecting has been focused on purchasing used cards, that have a specific and grounded connection to the town. It is possible to buy unused cards, but these of course may never have actually been in Grandpr\u00e9. The written cards are generally in S\u00fctterlin, or old German, and often in a sort of shorthand. Mostly in pencil, with a few more ornate texts in pen, possibly indicating a more educated person, they are challenging to read.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Figure 2: Row 1, 3 printed cards. Row 2: 3 photographic cards. Row 3: selection of postcard backs<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Research, creativity and virtual engagement<\/strong><\/h4>

As these cards arrived in the post, I scanned each one as a high-resolution digital record and began to assemble a chronological database of: typology; the postcard printer; when the card was written and franked; who wrote them, if identifiable; the recipient; and where they were sent.<\/p>

I printed out facsimiles of the cards at varying scales and began using white acrylic paint to opaque out buildings I had identified as no longer existing. I also removed the imposed German codification of street signs and shop signage. Taking it a stage further, I removed the soldiers\u2019 forms, they became ghost-like shapes occupying the spaces they inhabited. I had started to inhabit a virtual Grandpr\u00e9 through the physical cards.<\/p>

I began to notice modified cloud formation despite the printed card being from the same original negative. I correlated postage dates of duplicate cards and reflected on the apparent changing light in different printing densities of reproduction, I imagined the photographer taking the same picture on each date at precisely the same time on the church clock. New artworks were forming from the artefacts and ephemera of the collection.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Some postcards were translated with the help of a Manchester-based German academic researcher associated with the University here, and the messages began to have a direct conversation with the visual representation on their reverse.<\/p>

These postcards represented familial interactions, small quiet voices, against the backdrop of the tumultuous frontline, all constrained by the censor\u2019s eye.<\/p>

08.09.14<\/strong><\/p>

My Dear Gustel<\/em><\/p>

[on front] In the hope that this card will find you as safe and sound as it finds me, I leave you greetings and kiss you dearly. <\/em><\/p>

[on reverse] Please send me 100 cigarettes and 2 packets of fine cut immediately, because there is nothing left to smoke, even for money. You have to wrap the package well and seal it otherwise the things will be stolen en route. Please fulfil my only wish. Greetings to parents \u2026 The French are repulsed every day.<\/em><\/p>

25.08.16<\/strong><\/p>

Dear Mr. Behringer<\/em><\/p>

Greetings from the west.<\/em><\/p>

Destination still unknown.<\/em><\/p>

Lienhardt<\/em><\/p>

Best greetings<\/em><\/p>

19.01.17<\/strong><\/p>

Dear Klemm<\/em><\/p>

\u2026 <\/em>Hopefully we are soon approaching the hour of redemption <\/em>\u2026<\/em><\/p>

regards from your friend Schuessler<\/em><\/p>

09.11.17<\/strong><\/p>

Dear Mia!<\/em><\/p>

My card from yesterday, I assume you will have received. Today I was here in an artist-concert, which was very pleasant, and it was for me a great change. Here one talks about a special offering. It may be true?\u00a0 Otherwise, I am still well.<\/em><\/p>

With hearty greetings and kisses, Your Peter<\/em><\/p>

I became a member of some quite niche Facebook groups associated with the 14-18 campaign, in an attempt to understand what happened to Grandpr\u00e9 during its liberation. This engagement provided historical context to what was about to occur to the landscape of my collection. This information came mostly from descendants of American soldiers in the United States. At this point I noted several \u2018likes\u2019 to my posts that appeared to come from Grandpr\u00e9, and so I then made tentative contact directly through Facebook Messenger.<\/p>

There is a serendipitous nature to many of my projects, and both the people I initially contacted were of a similar age and shared many wider kindred interests. We immediately began a conversation around my project. One of these, Chris (Facebook name) also serves on the town council, and I suggested writing a proposal to the mayor to visit once lockdown ended, with the idea of exploring an artist residency. He presented this on my behalf, and the town council supported this with free accommodation in a mobile home on the municipal campsite.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Virtual and reality<\/strong><\/h4>

In June 2022, with Covid on the wane, I planned my first month-long trip to Grandpr\u00e9. Suddenly, a slightly playful isolated engagement with a collection of postcards, was now very real. Prior to making the journey, my newly established local working committee decided it would be good idea to create a Facebook group to announce the imminent arrival of \u2018this strange man from Manchester\u2019 who was interested in their little town.<\/p>

I\u2019m not a big user of Facebook, but it was a way of sharing my interest, postcards and starting a conversation. This was and continues to be an extraordinary success, and a rich resource, with now (at the time of writing) 352 members spread across the world, all with links to the town. It quickly became a closed-group by invitation, in order to make it a safe place to share images, familial and interconnected memories, and have conversations that had never taken place before, despite the vast majority of members being closely situated, or even related to each other. (6)<\/p>

With my partner accompanying me, we loaded up the car with my camera equipment and visual material, and drove to this place I felt I already knew so well. On arrival in the bright clear rural light of late May, I stood in the square for the first time, and was struck by how saturated it all felt. It was as if I was on a stage set version of the town \u2013 a simulated reality.<\/p>

I discovered that my collection wasn\u2019t quite as unique as I thought, many residents also had significant collections, and during public meetings shared them with me. The vast majority of these were focused on the same period as mine \u2013 and as I began to understand more clearly, for them, it was the moment before it all changed.<\/p>

As part of my engagement, I wanted to share some of my reference points. The French writer Georges Perec provides a way of looking at ordinary life, his ideas and approach have been a significant influence on how I visually articulate my interest in a sense of\u00a0 \u2018place\u2019. His was a quest for \u2018an anthropology of everyday life\u2019 by writing about both minor and major aspects of our surrounding environment \u2013 the beauty of the \u2018infra-ordinary\u2019. \u2018La Vojo\u2019 and my photography explores the minutiae of this with the postcards being a catalyst. (7)<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Developing an artistic and academic partnership<\/strong><\/p>

After this visit, I realised I needed a more formal collaboration to translate the cards. I had previously made contact with Dr Corinne Painter<\/a> at University of Leeds, German Department and introduced the project to her. Armed with feedback and photography from the first trip, we met again, and this began to develop into a wider collaboration to provide translation expertise, explore the artist\u2019s impact, and increased the conceptual rigour of the project. Corinne introduced me to Lara-Marie H\u00e4gerling<\/a> (Technische Universit\u00e4t Braunschweig), who began translating a greater selection of the cards\u2019 messages.<\/p>

Corinne and I submitted an abstract proposal about the project to the Memory Studies Association\u2019s 7th<\/sup> Annual International Conference, which was accepted. Corinne made a University seed funding application to cover our costs to attend and for her to make a trip to Grandpr\u00e9 on the third of my residencies in May of this year. Lara also joined us from Germany.<\/p>

As part of this trip I developed an alternative \u2018psychogeographical\u2019 walking tour of Grandpr\u00e9 in conjunction with some members of the Facebook group. This included a carefully assembled series of stories and locations. A selection of German Postcards were read in situ<\/em> in French, German and English \u2013 thus reanimating those voices in the place that authored them originally, sparking much spontaneous and animated conversation.<\/p>

Grandpr\u00e9 has a small Secondary School and we delivered a classroom-based engagement session practicing English language and visual interpretation, using a selection of the postcard collection, with a follow-up session of postcard writing in English. I then sent these to selected addresses in Europe and the UK, with the recipients taking selfies and sending them to me to reverse share with the School.<\/p>

It has become clear that the town reflects on its current position by referring to the postcards that document its past, in particular the German ones and an inter-war series of coloured cards, which are very like my initial hyper-reality experience on arrival. The topics they discuss include: rural life; local opportunities; depopulation; high streets; climate change; and tourism.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Figure 4: Artist walk, school engagements and studio pictures.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Et Maintenant? (And now?)<\/strong><\/h4>

I\u2019ve completed three month-long residencies to date. Corinne and I have delivered our paper to the conference, and this blog is one outcome of that experience.<\/p>

I now have my head down in the studio reviewing all the material I\u2019ve made both visually, and referentially through the continued conversations on the Facebook group. This period of reflection will inform a trip in June next year and then a series of installations, interventions and an exhibition within the town in the Autumn. I\u2019m planning a series of events and workshops in conjunction with this in the shape of an arts festival, that might allow an alternative appreciation of Grandpr\u00e9 and its future.<\/p>

Everyone has\u00a0their own way\u00a0of\u00a0seeing things.
Everyone\u00a0is leaving the\u00a0countryside.\u00a0
How do we\u00a0find\u00a0ways to\u00a0maintain\u00a0our heritage?
<\/em>
17.06.2023: Patrick Brouillon (La Vojo Returne Facebook Group)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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References<\/h3>

(1) On Photography<\/em>, Susan Sontag ISBN: 0-140053970. Publisher Penguin, 1997, p. 3. After this quote, Susan Sontag develops the idea referencing Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s film Les Carabiniers<\/em> (1963) and a suitcase full of postcards.<\/p>

(2) I read the first English translation of this work\u00a0(A W Wheen) during lockdown, and then compared it with a 2019 critically acclaimed translation by Brian Murdoch. I was struck by how very different they felt, how language was interpreted and\u00a0nuanced over time. Then when buying the Esperanto edition by chance, I began to\u00a0understand the reasons for\u00a0the translation of this book in 1931 by Joseph F Berger. Here was an international language created to foster world peace, and of course this book was an important\u00a0piece of literature at a time when Europe was beginning to be unsettled again by the rise of fascism.\u00a0The book\u2019s most salient feature is the central characters\u2019 pessimism about contemporary society which, they feel, is morally deficient, because it has arguably caused the war and learnt nothing from the experience.<\/p>

(3) Photographs from Another Place<\/em>: www.alanjward.co.uk\/project\/photographs-from-another-place\/<\/p>

(4) Rota-gravure, at the time of the First World War was most akin to a contemporary digital inkjet print in feel, being almost screenless in appearance with no mechanical dot pattern visible.<\/p>

(5) This website<\/a> gives an overview of the scale and depth of the military postal service.<\/p>

(6) It became very apparent to me on the first trip, that most residents of Grandpr\u00e9 are related or connected in some form or other. Six degrees of separation in miniature, this included being introduced to a direct descendant of Joan of Arc\u2019s sister.<\/p>

(7) As part of my engagement process with the community I have referred to 3 of Perec\u2019s publications in presentations. Tentative d’\u00e9puisement d’un lieu parisien<\/em>, 1975 (An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris<\/em>, ISBN: 9780984115525. Publisher: Wakefield Press, 2010); Je me souviens<\/em>, 1978, (I Remember<\/em>, ISBN 9781567925173. Publisher Godine, 2014); La Vie mode d’emploi<\/em>, 1978 (Life: A User’s Manual<\/em>, Vintage ISBN: 9780099449256. Publisher Vintage, 1996). I specifically invited people to read I remember <\/em>as a way of sharing their own memories or recollected family memories in relation to the postcards.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Ward is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Manchester. Many of his commissions are informed by research and engagement, whether historical or community led. Archives and artefacts, both personal and institutional, have become a significant reference point for exploration and reflection on ideas centred on the construction of historical narratives, identities, and individual and collective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ephemera-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat happens when First World War postcards and art come together, by Alan Ward - War Ephemera<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hosting.northumbria.ac.uk\/warephemera\/what-happens-when-first-world-war-postcards-and-art-come-together-by-alan-ward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What happens when First World War postcards and art come together, by Alan Ward - War Ephemera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alan Ward is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Manchester. 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