“It’s almost impossible to comprehend the scale of these historic
photographs by Englishman Arthur S Mole and his American colleague John D
Thomas, who were commissioned by the US government to take the pictures
as a way to raise morale among the troops and raise money by selling
the shots to the public during WWI.

In the photo above, “there are 18,000 men: 12,000 of them in the
torch alone, but just 17 at the base. The men at the top of the picture
are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom,” explains
Arthur’s great nephew Joseph Mole, 70.

Mole and Thomas were the first to use a unique technique to beat the
problem of perspective after they devised a clever way of getting so
many soldiers in the pictures. Joseph explains: “Arthur was able to get
the image by actually drawing an outline on the lens, he then had the
troops place flags in certain positions while he looked through the
camera. It would take a week to get all the outlines right, but just 30
minutes to move all the men into position to take the shot. It must have
been amazing to watch.”

What’s makes the story even more fascinating is that instead of
profiting from the sale of the images produced, the photographers
donated the entire income derived to the families of the returning
soldiers and to this country’s efforts to re-build their lives as a part
of the re-entry process.”