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1916: a village before the photographer

As we saw with the development of biometric passports after September 11, 2001, a crisis often allows the authorities to strengthen control of the population using the technology at its provision. Thus, if the identity card was particularly developed in France under the Vichy regime, we must remember that attempts have previously existed for special populations: the nomads in 1912, foreigners in 1917.

In 1916, the ID card is compulsory in the war zone controlled by the army. Thus, the region of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) is directly affected by the new regulations. No one may enter the city without showing his papers. However, this poses a real problem of adaptation to the peasants from nearby villages used to go there at least Saturday, market day to sell their produce or buy what they need. An American, Mildred Aldrich (1853-1928), has left letters evidence of the life of a village during the Great War. She resided in Quincy-Voisins, eight kilometers south of Meaux. In a letter dated September 30, 1916, she described a few lines in the novelty of the circumstances in the village:

For several months now that the bridge over the Marne at Meaux * is retained and even those that go market can not pass through without showing their papers. This procedure is very complicated for them because the town hall opens at nine o'clock, closes at noon to open and close to three hours to six. As you can see, these times are when everyone is most occupied in the fields. The man or woman who must go to the market on Saturday to leave his job and make a long trip to Quincy - often many miles on foot - at a time when it is less easy to waste time.

To complicate matters, a new order came a few weeks ago. All men, women and children (over fifteen years) in the war zone should be from October 1, an identity card which must be affixed a photograph.

This regulation has led to embarrassment of the strangest. Many of these old farmers - and also young - had never been photographed. There is no photographer here. The photographer and the two Esbly ** Meaux probably could not take pictures of everyone and, with the uncertain weather, make the prints in the time allowed by the military authorities. A huge cry of protest was heard. All kinds of photographers were sent to the town. The town crier beating his drum like a madman to announce where the photographers are and their dates and schedules, and directs people to come together and be photographed.

*** Amelia Court was one of those selected locations and you would have liked to see these old farmers tanned face for the first time in a camera. Some results were funny, especially when the operator was overworked and pressed two faces on the same negative, which happened several times.

(from Mildred Aldrich, On the Edge On The War Zone , Boston, 1917, p. 207-208, trans. Mickaël Wilmart)

* The bridge over the Marne confusion of the author who must speak the bridge Cornillon on the channel of the same name, which allows entering Meaux from the south.

** Esbly: Common 5 km northwest of Quincy-Voisins and 6 km south-west of Meaux.

*** Amelia neighbor and home of the author.

Unfortunately I did not find an identity photograph obtained during these sessions. The photo illustrating this post is taken at the same time by Mildred Aldrich. This is a portrait of his servant, Amelia.

Mysore Malliga Free Viedos

Two transmission media of religion (Albi, fifteenth and twenty-first century)

The iconographic programs of churches The main objective of transmission of knowledge: the components of religion (such dogma purgatory or hell, life of Christ, lives of saints) and good faith. In the last centuries of the Middle Ages, religion passes from clergy to the faithful through word and image. As the believer enters the sanctuary, he can see the examples chosen by the clergy and made available to illuminate his faith and life choices. Later, the writing will be added to these means of dissemination of religion. But the picture remains a privileged means of transmission. The Cathedral of St. Cecile in Albi is an excellent example.

The cathedral of Albi is famous for its murals of outstanding quality and size. The Last Judgement fresco (whose photos above show a detail), dating from the late fifteenth century, reflects both the anxieties of the era and their remedies. It is part of the flowering of the macabre in graphic art that reflects the rising fear about death. Outlining the punishment suffered by fishermen, it gives the same time the key to salvation (resist the temptation of sin). It constitutes in itself a pedagogy of the economy of salvation, a complex subject accessible to all by the image.

If the picture had its place in the diffusion of religion in the context of a predominantly illiterate society, what about today? It was at the entrance of the cathedral that we can find a first answer.

Above the baptismal font, a small wooden panel indicates how to sign upon entering the sanctuary. The five acts that constitute the subject of a particular pattern, indicating their order, direction (from top down and from right to left) and the words to say at every stage. The picture does not convey a dogma but a ritual. The question can be asked is without doubt to whom does it? The gesture is not it familiar to Catholics? Do we aimed for children? To non-practitioners who wish to return to the ecclesia ? It is undoubtedly the result of an observation: the de-Christianization of society in which the Christian movement is the easiest to learn. And in which images of the fifteenth century are probably not understood by most visitors.