About the Author

Welcome to the Combat Camera Collection. This project was born, like many things, during the extra time I found on my hands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Always having an interest in military history and photography, I became fascinated when researching the stories and units of combat photographers during WWII. With the invaluable task of allowing future generations to witness one of humanity's greatest fights against evil, they walked onto the battlefield not with a rifle, but a camera in hand.

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I began researching photographers and occasionally finding some of their items around antique shops or thrift stores. Pretty quickly I realized the great value these artifacts have in telling the history of those brave, often forgotten, photographers that were behind the documentary footage, museum posters, history books, and many more images future generations see from the war.

 

Since then, I am extremely humbled to preserve so many items, stories, and research resources of those brave combat cameramen, and have become a well-versed historian on the subject. Many of the items on this site are also brought to public educational events to further teach the history behind them. I hope this site will serve as a reminder, educational resource, and point of inspiration to remember those behind the lens of historic photos, and what they went through so that generations to come could witness what they did.

 

Zach Drury

Founder and Director, Combat Camera Collection​​​