Millions of homes in Britain have them, displayed on mantlepieces or forgotten in attics: faded photographs of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers freshly enlisted in Britain’s army, standing to attention for the camera in their new uniforms.
Mostly taken in studios, these portraits tend to be formal and the men often look proud and full of anticipation.
The contrast with the candid shots taken by Louis and Antoinette Thuillier, a French farming couple who charged a few francs for souvenir portraits that the soldiers could send home, is striking.
By the time the soldiers posed for the Thuilliers in the small northeastern town of Vignacourt, a rest centre less than 40km from the front, the horrors of the First World War were etched on their faces.
Many look exhausted and have evidently just marched in from the trenches. Their uniforms are worn and mud-spattered. Some of them bear insignia for acts of
