"Sacrifice in war is not just about names on the roll of honour. When you look at these men, you realise that sacrifice is literally inscribed on their tissue and skin," says Sandy Callister.
For the past six years, University of Auckland PhD graduate Sandy Callister has been face to face with some of the most horrific depictions of physical sacrifice during World War I. Her 2006 doctoral thesis is soon to be published by Auckland University Press as a book entitled The Face of War: New Zealand's Great War Photography. "Sacrifice in war is not just about names on the roll of honour. When you look at these men, you realise that sacrifice is literally inscribed on their tissue and skin," says Sandy Callister.
For the past six years, University of Auckland PhD graduate Sandy Callister has been face to face with some of the most horrific depictions of physical sacrifice during World War I. Her 2006 doctoral thesis is soon to be published by Auckland University Press as a book entitled The Face of War: New Zealand's Great War Photography.In it, Sandy discusses how photography was used to capture and narrate, memorialise and observe, romanticise and bear witness to the experiences of New Zealanders at home and overseas.
Selected images from one chapter of the book, "'Broken Gargoyles': the photographic representation of severely wounded New Zealand soldiers", will also be mounted as an exhibition, "The Hidden Faces of War: New Zealand's Great War Medical Photography", at the University's Gus Fisher Gallery.
The "Broken Gargoyles" chapter explores a little-known archive of disturbing and graphic medical records, photographs and paintings from the war's Western Front. Sandy maintains that unlike the traditional, perhaps even mythical, focus on New Zealand's fallen war heroes at Gallipoli, these medical records bring into sharp relief the way in which the bodies of soldiers in the trenches became the field on which the battles were fought.
Her research also explores the pivotal role played by New Zealander Sir Harold Gillies in helping to reconstruct the shattered, torn faces of New Zealand's Allied troops.
Born in Dunedin in 1882 and internationally respected as the grand statesman of plastic surgery, Gillies pioneered medical procedures necessary to deal with the growing number of men with severe facial injuries. His work was documented in the form of black and white photographs, watercolours and pastels, all of which record the changing appearances of disfigured soldiers throughout their hospitalisation.
"My research examines how visual images can tell stories and explore avenues that texts and diaries can't always do," says Sandy. "One of the most striking aspects of these case histories is that each man is known-he is identified by name, by unit, even by age. This research is the first step toward preserving their memory and bringing their stories home."
Sandy says Gillies' goal was to aid the wounded soldiers' transition from being symbols of the horror of war to the acceptable category of the "war-wounded". Working to repair victims of unprecedented violence-ravaged not just by bullets and shrapnel but also mass-scale infections and gas gangrene-Gillies experimented with techniques of tissue transfer, higher standards of hygiene, and new methods of administering anaesthesia.
The surgical techniques pioneered by Gillies and his team to repair the horrific facial injuries inflicted upon servicemen formed the foundation of modern-day facial reconstruction from which many tens of thousands of people have benefitted. The groundbreaking work of Gillies predates the remarkable work of Gillies cousin, Archibald McIndoe and his association with The Guinea Pig Club during World War Two (The Guinea Pig Club is the name given to the pilots injured in the Battle of Britain who were treated by Sir Archibald in the burns unit of Queen Victoria's Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex).
Today, the Gillies' medical case studies are housed in the Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup, Kent, as part of the Gillies Archive. Sandy notes that although a record number of cameras were taken to World War I, the relationship between military and medical histories are generally considered separate and distinct. She hopes her research will highlight the inter-connectedness of these histories and bring back to the collective New Zealand consciousness this long-overlooked chapter in this country's history.
The Face of War: New Zealand's Great War Photography (AUP May, 2008) will be launched at 1pm on 31 May at the Gus Fisher Gallery (74 Shortland St). The exhibition "The Hidden Faces of War: New Zealand's Great War Medical Photography" also opens on 31 May and runs through 5 July. For more information visit www.gusfishergallery.auckland.ac.nz or phone (09) 373 7599 ext 86646.
Image: Corporal R. B. Fowler, Archive Number 82, Macalister Collection, Gillies Archive, Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, Kent, UK