The Taking of Vimy Ridge

The Taking of Vimy Ridge explores the life and works of William Ivor Castle, a Canadian official First World War photographer known for staging and manipulating his photographs. Castle shot more than 1000 photographs during his time as official photographer attached to the Canadian Corps, and his iconic (though sometimes manipulated) scenes of war created a sensation at London’s Grafton Galleries during the war. But the remainder of his wartime oeuvre, and Castle himself, are less well-remembered today. The Taking of Vimy Ridge analyzes the unique relationship between Castle and the Canadian War Records Office and distinguishes several of Castle’s never-before-identified manipulated works as he attempted to illustrate the Battle of Vimy Ridge—one of Canada’s most mythologized First World War battles—to audiences around the world. Drawing from Canadian and British archival records, as well as Castle’s complete body of work from the Battle of Vimy Ridge, this richly illustrated book offers a much more expansive understanding of Castle's contribution to both war photography and our understanding of portrayals of the First World War, including a close interpretation of the technical choices he made in framing his images, and the context in which this oeuvre developed.