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The Taking of Vimy Ridge explores the life and works of William Ivor Castle, a Canadian official First World War photographer known for staging and manipulating his photographs.
Castle shot more than 1000 photographs during his time as official photographer attached to the Canadian Corps, and his iconic (though sometimes manipulated) scenes of war created a sensation at London’s Grafton Galleries during the war. But the remainder of his wartime oeuvre, and Castle himself, are less well-remembered today.
The Taking of Vimy Ridge analyzes the unique relationship between Castle and the Canadian War Records Office and distinguishes several of Castle’s never-before-identified manipulated works as he attempted to illustrate the Battle of Vimy Ridge—one of Canada’s most mythologized First World War battles—to audiences around the world.
Drawing from Canadian and British archival records, as well as Castle’s complete body of work from the Battle of Vimy Ridge, this richly illustrated book offers a much more expansive understanding of Castle's contribution to both war photography and our understanding of portrayals of the First World War, including a close interpretation of the technical choices he made in framing his images, and the context in which this oeuvre developed.
"Carla-Jean Stokes crafts a narrative that is both familiar and ground-breaking. Many of William Ivor Castle’s famous photos of Vimy Ridge in this book will be familiar to the reader, but Stokes masterfully explains the story-behind-the-story of the images. Generations before software made it easy to edit photographs, Castle was changing and manipulating his First World War photographs to tell a dramatic story that often differed from the “truth” of the original images. Stokes’ work sheds new light on our understanding of Vimy and wartime photography while rightfully bringing the photographer into the spotlight." — Mike Bechthold, RCAF History and Heritage Office.
"The Taking of Vimy Ridge is essential reading for anyone who wants a better understanding of First World War photography. Stokes has written a fine biography of William Ivor Castle—and an even better analysis of his visual legacy and the role of his work in shaping the narrative of Vimy for generations of Canadians." — Jonathan F. Vance, Western University
*DRAFT* TOC
Note on the Photographs
The Making of a Photographer
Ivor Castle
Early War Photography
“The Danger Zone”: Photographing the Balkan Wars
The First Photographer, 1916
Shots in Battle
The Battle
The Taking of Vimy Ridge
Prisoner Portraits
Picturing the Battle
The Making of Vimy Ridge
Composing History
The Road Back
Bringing the War Home
Canada’s Showman
Bibliography
Index