William Rider-Rider wrote*, "Passchendaele was a treacherous place for a cameraman--or anyone else, for that matter." How treacherous, you ask? Check out some photographs

*He later claimed that this essay, published in the 3rd issue of Canada in Khaki was heavily edited without his consent. I still choose to believe that this one sentiment was true: Passchendaele straight-up sucked.

Photograph is: Canadian Signal Section trying to get a connection, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3381020.

In 1971, R-R also added that the mud, shellholes, and duckboards were “much worse than the trenches, because in a trench you did have a certain amount of cover, where here, there was no cover whatever.”

Photograph is: Personnel of the 16th Canadian Machine Gun Company holding the line in shell holes during the Battle of Passchendaele, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3233069. R-R, in that same 1971 interview, claimed this was the best photograph he took during the war.

R-R remarked that a thin mist surrounded the battlefield, making it difficult for him to get the shots that he wanted. More than a hundred years later, the atmosphere that bothered him as a photographer is one of the things that draw us to his Passchendaele images.

Photograph is: Passchendaele, now a field of mud, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3194937.

It wasn't easy to travel the muddy battlefield. R-R stuck close to one post taking a few photographs. When he was ready to move to the next an NCO offered to escort him. They had such a terrible time of it, R-R gave up and went back. He claims he ended up escaping a bombardment.

Of his images (I'll post a few more here) R-R remarked, “I think those photographs brought home to anyone that saw them, the conditions under which troops had to either live or die at the front.”

Mud and Boche wire through which the Canadians had to advance, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3522044.

Mud and barbed wire through which the Canadians advanced during the Battle of Passchendaele, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3194807.

Boche prisoners waiting for a strafe to finish before proceeding to the prisoners' cage, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3403145.

Wounded Canadians rest near Heine pill-box. Battle of Passchendaele, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3397041.

Canadians building a small water tank, November 1917, LAC MIKAN 3522061.

Shout out to my pals @c_dotb and @alexajoki for each showing me some beautiful photographic objects of Passchendaele and Ypres this past week! /fin

(JK, one more thing re: above tweet. Obviously I mean photographs of Passchendaele the battle and Ypres the location. I know that Passchendaele is the Third Battle of Ypres, don't @ me).