Normandy Photos: World War II and Today

This type of work with photography is named “landshaftic” or “landshaftique” (in french). Very interesting.

After the Battle, a British WWII history magazine has been doing this for years, since the mid-1970s. They gather a mess of photos from various archives and then go to the battlefields, cities, etc, and take photos of the same spot (as close as possible–often new construction will prevent an exact comparison), and combine those images with excellent historical text. The results are amazing. And not all the scars of war have been eradicated–many buildings still bear the marks of shell and gun fire which can be seen in the wartime photos. It’s also amazing how much was NOT affected, i.e. destroyed, during the war and is still around today for these comparison shots.

Nice find!

I was in the Normandy region (yes, it’s a region) for the 50th Anniversary of the DDay landing. They may be snooty and anti-American in the big city, but in these small country towns, they REMEMBER what Americans did and they’re very grateful, wonderfully nice people — especially if you’re wearing a military uniform. For example, the American (and German) cemeteries are absolutely pristine and extremely well-cared for. Better than most military cemeteries in the US, actually.

Hi Patrick, what an amazing series of photos leaving me almost breathless whilst I studied in depth the original sites, wrecked and in taters against the colourful sites of today.Although I received this in the form of an email clearly there is going to be/is a part two. Have you thought in terms of placing the street names so that people fortunate enough to be living in France could make a special trip to see those places in time we have for the most part been privileged to forget ever happened.

Very well done Patrick, I look forward to seeing the sequal.