Rescued Pictures from World War II Are Published

An American photographer, Levi Bettwieser, who collects old negatives, published photos from World War II, made by a US Army soldier.

At the end of 2014 Levi Bettwieser purchased thirty one undeveloped film rolls dating back to the middle of last century, which belonged to an unknown photographer. After he developed the film, Bettwieser discovered that the rescued negatives contained historical importance – they depict events of World War II though the lens of an American soldier, writes thisiscolossal.com. The film rolls, labeled Boston Harbor, La Havre Harbor, and Lucky Strike Camp, feature life in the army: military barracks, funerals, lunches, marches, urban landscapes, etc.

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Bettwieser purchased the negatives for his documentary project Rescued Film. The photographer looks for, buys, and develops old negatives dating from the 1930s to the 1990s and then uploads the images to the internet. The archive is divided into the categories of: Rescued People, Rescued Places and Rescued Things. Bettwieser tries to find the photographers as well as the places and people depicted in the photos. He asks for help from the readers to obtain the historical information. In his description of the project, he explains that he helps to restore history, because every image was made for a reason by a person who wanted to document the specific moment captured.

Film Director Tucker Debevec made a 10-minute documentary about the rescued images.