Capturing the Women's Army Corps: The World War II Photographs of Captain Charlotte T. McGraw

Photographic Art of the 1930s and 1940s

18 In the years leading up to World War II, photography was growing as a commercial and artistic medium. Trends in art from that era may have influenced Captain McGraw’s own work. She worked as a photographer for the movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) before the war and would have been very familiar with the glamour of Hollywood. MGM produced film stars such as Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, and Joan Crawford. Photographs of these influential people were meant to publicize their star appeal and to enhance the studio’s position in the motion-picture industry. Surrealism was another artistic influence on photography . This style is evident in Captain McGraw’s photographs . Lee Miller, a famous photographer, took the art of photography into a dimension characterized by sharp, even shocking juxtapositions, ironies, a sense of abnormality, and an inversion of normal perceptions and values. War, as the dramatic reversal of most social norms, harshly dramatizes elements of surrealism. Many World War II photographers had little difficulty depicting surrealist elements with shots of concentration camps, civilian suicides, and the outlandish, even bizarre reality of how senior Nazi officials lived in luxury in nightmarish contrast to the devastation and depredation experienced by the rest of the German population. In 1945 Lee Miller posed for a famous photograph while bathing in Hitler’s bathtub in Munich. Her combat boots, still splashed with mud from the Dachau concentration camp, streaked the pristine floor mat in front of the tub while a portrait of the Führer, dressed in a snappy military uniform, was perched on spotless tile. Surrealism was often a fact of life during wartime. Throughout Captain McGraw’s photographs, the reader will notice elements of both glamour and irony. The military orders that sent her on assignment explicitly required Captain McGraw to photograph her subjects so that both their important military duties and their femininity were portrayed. An example of this type of photo can be seen in figure 23. The photo is of a soldier, with the rank of Private, wearing makeup and lipstick. The subject’s Photographic Art of the 1930s and 1940s Photographic Art of the 1930s and 1940s • 19 face is shot in clear light, which highlights her attractive features while also showing important elements of her uniform. In other photos WACs are depicted in social situations, applying makeup, and even frolicking on a beach (see “People in Context: The Art of the Portrait” in the chapter on Captain McGraw’s work). These photos were designed to allay any anxiety women might have in thinking that military service would make them unattractive and undesirable for marriage later. The beach scene (figure 18), taken and printed in color, is also a fine photo for irony. While the foreground shows a woman on the beach, in the background is a blown-up and submerged war vessel. The angle capturing both images in a single photo is not coincidental . Captain McGraw could have shot the photo from any other angle or just focused on the woman. Instead, it appears the photographer wanted to capture the paradox of war’s destruction as well as its distractions. Charlotte McGraw was the only official photographer of the Women’s Army Corps, yet there were numerous female journalists and photographers sent by their civilian employers to document the war. Many of them, such as Toni Frissell, Therese Bonney, Clare Booth Luce, and Esther Bubley, recorded the war, but their subjects were Above: Figure 18. Leyte. Right: Figure 19. Source: Library of Congress. 20 • Photographic Art of the 1930s and 1940s not exclusively women. Usually these female photographers covered the war for either newspaper or popular magazines of the day. Millions of Americans saw their photos , which covered the war with clarity, candor, and drama. Toni Frissell (1907–1988), shown in figure 19 with European children in 1945, had taken fashion photos for both Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. She used her professional skills to photograph the war. Her photo of pilot Edward C. Gleed, who was with the elite 332nd Fighter Group in March 1945, represents classic military photography and portraiture for this time (figure 20). Clearly, it is a staged shot of the Tuskegee airman beside a plane used by that outfit. He is in combat flight gear, suited up and ready for deadly business. Interestingly, his expression does not show bitterness, anger, or fear. He seems relaxed, confident...