Battle Of The Bulge Analysis

John Florea, a Hollywood photographer and war correspondent for Life, was sent to the European Front in the middle of 1944 to capture the realities of combat during WWII. There he captured the image “American soldier shaving during a lull in the fighting” that demonstrates a small glimpse in the life of two soldiers during WWII and how they dealt with everyday tasks such as shaving amid Belgium’s cold winter. The photograph was taken on January 1st, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the last major offensive campaigns on the Western Front during WWII. Throughout this period, Allied forces were “distributed along a 600-mile front between the North Sea and Switzerland” (“Battle of the Bulge”). The Allies were stretched thin and beginning …show more content…
He also uses monochrome to his advantage by blurring out the forest in the background making it almost completely white to make his shot seem colder. The ground beneath the soldiers and a dead tree hanging over a barbed wired fence in the background are covered in ice and snow. This also emphasizes the fact that indeed it is cold but still he shaves. Also, by positioning the soldier slightly left, it allows for another combat helmet to join the photograph as to add another sink in the mix of this gentlemen’s makeshift bathroom. The photos second subject that stands behind the main one portrays the act of shaving in a field in the middle of winter as a common occurrence, and suggests that he is not the only one going through these hardships. The use of what appears to be an ammunition box as a table and the inside of a combat helmet as a sink displays how much these soldiers must adapt to their environment by using whatever is available to them to complete an everyday task. The use of the combat helmet as a sink is amusing. The fact that a helmet, used to protect the head of a soldier from shrapnel, debris and sometimes bullets, is now being used as a sink in order to maintain the health and welfare of the soldiers is just genius. This introduces the idea of resourcefulness and discipline of the men, not only to keep up their appearance in the military, but as a soldier, strongly represented throughout the photo. Leading one to believe that these soldiers at this time in the war are strong and capable of pushing through whatever obstacle that comes in between them and going

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Battle Analysis: The Battle Of The Bulge