Rationing of Film And Development Chemicals

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henryk
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Rationing of Film And Development Chemicals

#1

Post by henryk » 14 Dec 2022, 23:00

Civilian life in occupied Soviet Union in photos & documents
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=16822

There is amazing number of pictures shown, taken in Occupied Soviet Union, presumably by German military, using their own cmeras and then developing the film. I presume the same was true in Germany and other German occupied lands.
The production of the fims, and the chemicals used to develop them, surely was a significant diversion from military resources.

As a boy I still remember being affected by rationing in WWII Canada.
What rationing on the items was applied in WWII Germany?

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henryk
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Location: London, Ontario

Re: Rationing of Film And Development Chemicals

#2

Post by henryk » 17 Dec 2022, 00:53

https://www.britannica.com/art/history- ... ean-cinema
Partial Content
Post-World War I European cinema

Prior to World War I, the American cinema had lagged behind the film industries of Europe, particularly those of France and Italy, in such matters as feature production and the establishment of permanent theatres. During the war, however, European film production virtually ceased, in part because the same chemicals used in the production of celluloid were necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder. The American cinema, meanwhile, experienced a period of unprecedented prosperity and growth. By the end of the war, it exercised nearly total control of the international market: when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, 90 percent of all films screened in Europe, Africa, and Asia were American, and the figure for South America was (and remained through the 1950s) close to 100 percent. The main exception was Germany, which had been cut off from American films from 1914 until the end of the war.
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https://401gir.com/the-amateur-gi-photographer-in-wwii/
partial content
The Amateur GI Photographer in WWII
ANDREW LUCE | 8 MARCH 2020
As photography technology rapidly advanced from the 1920s through the 1930s and 40s, personal cameras became more accessible to a wider market. Cameras went from bulky, complex pieces of equipment to small, relatively simple-to-use devices that the average person in the early 20th century could take just about anywhere. By the early 30s, thanks to German technology in particular, “…the means existed…for spontaneous, candid photography in low-light” (Boot, 1994, p. 13). When the United States entered World War II, a generation of young men and women went overseas for the first time, many taking their first steps outside of the comfort of their tight knit communities. This would be a perfect opportunity to bring a camera along and document what they experienced and saw first-hand.

The objective of this article is to briefly cover the usage and types of personal cameras GIs used during World War II, and what would be most appropriate for a World War II reenactor’s impression. This article will not cover U.S. War Correspondent cameras, especially motion picture equipment, as much of what was available to them was not accessible to the typical GI at the front (for good reason). You’d be pressed to find any infantryman on the march to Germany carrying the bulky, yet reliable, Speed Graphic that many Signal Corps photographers were armed with. Although many correspondents brought multiple cameras, even from their personal collection, that would have been available to a GI.

A majority of U.S. Army photographs, especially those of combat subject-matter, were taken by the Signal Corps or other press photographers. After all, GIs were fighters first, and leisure came second. Officially speaking, soldiers were not permitted to take cameras on campaign, but this proved to be impossible to police and manage. Therefore, many of the “amateur” photographs taken by GIs during the war that survived were taken during training or on leave, away from the front lines. Even then, most photographs taken and developed were vetted by censors. This was to ensure sensitive images were not distributed, whether they contained potential classified information or would damage the reputation of the U.S. military. There are some stories of long-lost reels of film, never developed, as they were brought home by GIs from the war. Although the United States prided itself with ‘freedom of the press’ (especially relative to other countries), propaganda and controlled messaging still had an important role to play in American society on the home front. As Chris Boot states, “At the end of 1944, the Allied Press Bureau in Paris was censoring 35,000 photographs each week” (Boot, 1994, p. 18). While this figure is for correspondents, Boot also mentions that “There are no inventories of the images made by amateur photographers during the war and it is impossible to estimate the total number of images produced.” While we will never know how many GI amateur photographers there were over the course of the war, it is reasonable to say photography was not an insignificant GI pastime.

Even at the beginning of the war, Britain in particular faced a shortage of cameras and equipment, and relied heavily on German-made products. It would not be out of the ordinary to find German-made camera equipment in Allied hands during the war. A mix of both 35mm and 120mm film was used, the latter being more common for the time period. For reenactors who are exploring cameras to use, keep in mind that unless you have your own darkroom and developing chemicals, 120mm film will be increasingly challenging to obtain and develop, compared to 35mm. Living in the digital age, film in general is an investment – a recent experiment with a modern disposable camera cost $12 for the camera alone plus $17 for film development of 27 exposures.
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