For this competition I decided to look through all of the old family photo albums. I managed to get some stuff from back when I was younger in the late 90s and early 2000s but that wasn’t really long ago so I decided to go further. In my search for a great old photo I came across some old medals and photos that came from my Great Uncle Archie who fought during World War II. This really interested me and I am so proud to have had someone who actually experienced the war. I also found a diary that his father kept during the First World War and after his son was born which was interesting to read. My Great Uncle also got medals for his efforts during the war which to me stand for courage and bravery. I wish that I could ask him questions about the war and what it was like but at least I have the photos, medals and diaries that were kept during such a dark time. This also gave me an idea for an experiment to do with photo montage as part of my performance photography coursework. For a lot of the photos I don’t know the exact dates but they were done during the War between 1939 onward.

My Great Uncle fought all over the world during the war effort and got medals for his contributions to the war. He got the Germany star, France Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, The Defense Medal, The 1939-1946 Star and another one but I can’t tell which medal it is. I think it is amazing how he went around the world to fight for the freedom of his country. He was born in Glasgow and so were his family. It was interesting to me as his father kept a log book of all of his children over the years.

The number on the back of some of these photographs are the number of photos that they had taken, as each of them are random and aren’t dated.