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VEST POCKET KODAK
In 1900, the appearance of portable cameras, instead of those requiring a tripod and a cape, the development of the first devices Eastman "Brownie" and the creation of the " Kodak " company open the photography to a mass market.
"Everybody wants to take photos" and the photography so replaces the painting to fix the moment of a life or the important event of a society.
In first time of the Great War, numerous soldiers add in their pack a camera. The press encourages moreover the soldiers to sell their pictures to publish them.
During year 1915 the Vest Pocket Kodak Autographic is a camera of very fashionable pocket in trenches. It costs 65 french Francs and many soldiers native of city circles buy it or receive it as a present. Endowed with a cover of protection " blue horizon " which hangs on to the belt, "Vest" follows the soldiers everywhere.
But in all the countries at war, the military High command also worries about this photographic production and about the possible use of pictures, even harmless, by the enemy intelligence service. Orders are promulgated to forbid the individual photography and the use of camera on the front line. Furthermore of Service official photographs controlled by the military censorship are created. Nevertheless till the end of 1918 soldiers defy the prohibition and continue to photograph.
Today these photos shape and continue to shape our visual memories of this war.

Bibliography :
AMAR Jean Pierre, Histoire de la Photographie, Paris, PUF, 1999,127 p.
MEYER Jacques, Les soldats de la Grande Guerre, Paris, Hachette, coll. La vie quotidienne, 1966, 376 p.