JF Ptak Science Books  

I really enjoy looking at old photos with a magnifying glass, finding the pictures within the picture, until it is micro-images all the way down. It is odd “coming out” of them, sometimes, and then looking at the full image, and in some sense feeling utterly at a loss to try and find where you had just been in great detail.  

Here’s an example with this great photo of the French Blue Devils on parade at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  These soldiers were and are elite mountain infantry, the Chassons Alpins, “Alpine Hunters”, and nicknamed “the Blue Devils”, and who saw their fair share of combat during WWI.  They made a tour of the U.S.at the beginning of the War in a fund raising drive, and evidently did so again, at least in this instance, showing up in New York in May 1918.  

• Image 7.5×9.5″. The black mark/tear appears int he photographic negative itself and no tint he paper print. The photo is accompanied by the text sheet (below). $250

This is a news photo service photograph (see here for the story) and is accompanied by this text which was supposed to be used along with the image when purchased for publication in a newspaper or magazine.