Photographies et mémoires de la Première Guerre dans les guides Michelin (1917–2019)

Michelin's Illustrated Battlefields Guides are no ordinary travel guides. A considerable number of photo-engravings were collected and published between 1917 and 2019. Reuse and addition of engravings demonstrate the interdependence of communicative memory and cultural memory. Up to 1921 the illustrations bore witness to the end of war / post-war climate, and military photojournalism still enjoyed a monopoly: events and material reality of destruction prevailed. During the interwar period, this monopoly and the objectifying knowledge of World War I persisted and became more complex, focusing on Verdun both as a concrete referent and an emerging myth. The 2019 guide changes paradigms and takes cemeteries, war memorials, stelae, as a starting point, with a view to reconciling the interest of all and the empathy of each visitor, commemorating the past and symbolically preserving it for the future.