Hygiene in the trenches

Photographs from World War I convey contradictory impressions of the front. Images of soldiers in the trenches bring the viewers closer to the battlefield, to mass death. Infantrymen at their morning routine, on the other hand, present everyday rituals.
In the face of death, shaving and hairdressing may seem absurd. But perhaps that is exactly the message of the photos? Life on the Front is like at home: washing, brushing teeth, cutting hair – moments of normalcy are also at hand in war. People who considered such images a hundred years ago should imagine the war as something commonplace. But even for their contemporaries, images of violence and death overlaid attempts to portray war as a normal state of affairs.