First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has continued to encourage and engage with the project, and a very warm welcome to those that have just started to follow us either here on our website, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Over the past few months, a focal point for activity has been a second photographic research trip to France and Belgium.  Starting at Veurne, the route took in Ypres, Mons, Loos and Neuve-Chapelle, as well as several other stopping points along the way.

As someone who is a photographer, I am on a steep learning curve with the history of this period, and it is really on these visits that I start to understand more of the detail of what happened.  Many of the sites were of course very moving places to visit, and there was a particularly memorable evening reflecting and taking photos as the sun set over the Canadian memorial at Vimy.  Photos from that evening and from the rest of the trip are being published more or less daily on the project’s Facebook and Twitter feeds.

One of the key aims of the project is of course to share the images with as wide an audience as possible.  This is both to further debate and understanding about the war and about the role of remembrance; and also of course to encourage people to take and share their own remembrance images.  I am starting to put together a programme of presentations and discussion sessions with various community and school groups, so if you know anyone who might be interested in such a presentation, please do put them in touch with me.

Meantime, work continues on planning the third photography research trip in June, which will focus on the southernmost section of the western front, from Reims across to Verdun and then down to the Swiss border.  As ever, images will follow in due course, so watch this space!

Once again, thanks to everyone for their support, and please do keep in touch!