Walter Koessler project

Page 58 of 105

More unusual clothes in the Carpathian mountains. Look at those awesome fleece pants!

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The Carpathian Mountains. Here, Walter seems to be particularly interested in the people and their homes. Their clothing must have been particularly unusual to Walter, who may never have seen people dressed this way before.

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The journey begins. The cannons and artillery pieces are loaded onto a train, and the remaining supplies are packed on a wagon train separately. This is going to be a long trip!

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The troops begin preparations for a long trip into the Carpathian Mountains. Walter appears to be documenting the group before they depart and separate.

Hello new followers! Where did you all come from?! This blog has almost a thousand new followers in the last two days, which is wonderful and surprising! I'd love to know how you found it.

With new followers and old in mind, here's a couple announcements I should have made a long time ago: Walter's photos are currently on exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA! Above are a few photos of me and the museum's curator of photography and her assistant checking out the exhibit. They really did a beautiful job setting up Walter's album for view, and if you're in Pittsburgh between now and December you should check it out!

I'm actively looking for other museums to show Walter's work in. Our goal is to share Walter's photos with as many people as possible. If you know anyone at an appropriate museum or gallery, please let me know how to contact them at [email protected].

Also I've redone the WalterKoessler.com website. Shiny! Check it out here.

For those of you who are new, Walter's photos are available as a beautiful hard-bound coffee table book. The book contains a reproduction of the whole album at almost actual size, and was funded by two thousand backers on Kickstarter. It's one of the most-funded publishing projects of all time on Kickstarter.

Page 54 of 105

More investigation of the church at Montfaucon. Here you can see a photo from the roof that matches the ones of the soldier in page 47.

I did some searching online for this church, but wasn't able to find it's present-day location for certain. There is a church ruin in Montfaucon-d'Argonne, but it's difficult to say from the photos I've found that this is the same place. The modern day location there is almost completely decimated.

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Interior photos of the church in Montfaucon. This church in particular received a lot of attention, and it's here that Walter realizes the advantage of getting full sunlight inside a church with a blown out roof.

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More swimming and hanging around nude. The dogs make another appearance, and officers take a break for tea.

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The boys take a break to go swimming. Quite a few of these square images are actually one frame of a stereographic pair. I'll post those soon.

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In between assignments in 1916. Walter's dog makes a reappearance, and I've included the note from the back of that photo. My mom provides this rough translation:

“My Hell in Montfaucon. 6 meters under ploughed earth, one cannot stand up, but sleeps well.”

What a note.

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The kitchen wagon and a 150mm cannon in action.

Page 47 of 105

1916 compilation. Photos from Verdun, Metz and Mont-Faucon. I've included the reverse of the photo with the officers on horseback as it's a postcard.

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Winter continues, now with sledding and snowmen! The solders in the photo above the snowmen are posing for their snow-sculpted counterparts below.

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Page 41-43 of 105

Walter wrote a report here detailing a scouting troop he lead and a small skirmish with the enemy. The map shows their movements in the general area that they traveled. In the end, they were spotted and retreated while throwing grenades at the enemy.