Living insignia
Arthur Mole's titanic group photos
Chris Wild
1917-1918
Born in England in 1889, photographer Arthur Mole became famous for his patriotic work as a naturalized American. But his work was far from traditional.Accompanied by his partner, John Thomas, Mole visited military bases around the country during World War I. There, he placed his 11x14-inch view camera atop an 80-foot tower and ordered thousands of officers, soldiers, reservists and nurses into colossal compositions.Each photograph took at least a week of planning to visualize and map out. Mole would trace the outline of each composition on the ground glass of his camera, then use a megaphone and hand signals to direct assistants on the ground. It took several more hours of wrangling thousands of participants into place before the shutter could be clicked.In the chaotic days of World War I, the monumental images were meant to display a sense of resolute national unity.
