Belgian sniper. Original photograph, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches.

Good condition.    $350

This is an excellent example of appreciating images in context.  The photograph seemed line an ordinary image of a soldier peering through a periscope on action ahead of his trench, in some miserable battlefield, somewhere in Europe, 1918.  The image is the product of a photographic pool, the photographers working in semi-unison to produce acceptable images to be used in publications illustrating the war.  The images could not be too terribly graphic, and must not relate any useful military intelligence–they would pass through the hands of very active censors whose job it was to slightly inform the reading public and to also keep morale high, a difficult balancing act.

And so I thought my thoughts. Until I turned the image over–it was stamped “Photo by Central News Photo Service”. It was also accompanied by a typed caption, the bit of text that was to be the standardized caption for this photograph when and if it was used by a magazine or newspaper.

The title is “The Belgian Collector”. 

The Belgian collector was a sharpshooter. He would scan the field looking for any unfortunate who might have left themselves exposed.  Then he would shoot at them. Collect them.

In a  sense, “collect” like “John Fowles The Collector, only killing them with a rifle.

But that was his job. And it was war. And if he was on your side, then you’d want him there.  

I found “the collector” name to be poetical, and chilling.  

So, combining the context with the image in this case was a truly sensational thing.