Nicely composed and post processed. looks good in B&W, but im not sure that I like the names of the fallen being shown, it just seems a bit 'not the done thing to me'
Thank you very much, but good heavens, why ever not? We cannot commemorate them if we hide them away and pretend that they aren't there. The photograph also juxtaposes the poem written by Noel Hodgson and his gravestone, which shows the date, one of great significance both to the narrative, and to our nation, and its depiction here brings a tragic story within a day of many tragedies to an audience who may not already know that story, as well as to those who do.
The headstones are very close together - it is effectively a mass grave. The Devonshires attacked Mametz on 1st July 1916 from a trench on this spot. A machine gun, located in a shrine in the Mametz village cemetery, caught them in the open, causing horrendous casualties. The Devons knew the gun was there, and that the pre-attack bombardment had failed to destroy the position, but they had no choice other than to obey their orders. The dead were subsequently brought back and buried in the same trench. A sign was erected over the grave which read 'The Devonshires held this trench. They hold it still'. I think that there are only two graves in the cemetery which are not dated 1st July 1916.
Our country, indeed much of the world, is replete with monuments commemorating the dead, some of them very grand, others modest. There is no disprespect implied or given in depicting those monuments, unless of course there is some deliberate malicious intent, most certainly not the case here.
