Western Allied Aerial Reconnaissance during the Second World War
In this article, Nowak analyses an aspect of military remote sensing that has been little examined in cultural studies research, namely the interpretation of the resultant images. The importance of this aspect lies in the fact that these images are not easily deciphered. To meet this challenge, specific skills of the image interpreters, a particular organisation of their cooperation and a technicisation of the image interpretation are needed. Nowak discusses these interrelationships via the example of the interpretation of Western Allied aerial images during the Second World War, with a particular focus on the role women operators played.
Constance Babington Smith analyse à l’aide d’un stéréoscope des photographies de reconnaissance aérienne du site de Peenemünde durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, photographie tirée de Constance Babington Smith, Evidence in Camera. The Story of Photographic Intelligence in World War II, Londres, Chatto and Windus, 1958, entre pp. 224-225.
Lars Nowak is a professor of media studies at the Foreign Studies College at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, China. His most recent publications include “Spuren von Spuren. Zur Dokumentation militärischer Landschaften durch vier amerikanische Fotografen”, in Rundbrief Fotografie, XXIV/1, 2017; Medien – Krieg – Raum (ed.), Paderborn, 2018; and Bild und Negativität (ed.), Würzburg, 2019.
Keywords: labour organisation, qualifications, technicisation of work, gender inequality, interpretation of aerial images, decipherment, incomprehensibility
Citation: Lars Nowak, « Interprétation des images de télédétection militaire. La reconnaissance aérienne des Alliés occidentaux pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale », Transbordeur. Photographie histoire société, no. 6, 2022, pp. 38-47.