Scalpel and Camera

The images in this war photo album come from those left behind by Dr Gyula Kemény, a regimental physician of the joint army of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. These pictures were mainly taken at the Italian theatre of the First World War, arranged as a photographic journal, following their internal logic rather than a chronological order, to give an idea of the personal fate and the everyday reality of a military officer and his comrades on the front. The photographer, who fought in Serbia, Italy and Palestine, also kept a journal, describing his horrific experiences in a very good style. When he felt that words were no longer enough to express what he saw, he took his camera to immortalise the war in pictures. The days spent in constant danger at first aid posts close to the front lines or in the trenches lent him a unique perspective full of empathy, as the doctor presented the true face of the Great War - or any war for that matter, sometimes bluntly, sometimes in a more subtle way.