170. Vest Pocket Kodak
- Rainey Knudson
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
By WWI, the Army realized it needed to control the photographic narrative of war. It formed the Signal Corps Photographic Section—one photographer per division—to produce official, sanctioned images. But thousands of doughboys smuggled Kodak’s collapsible pocket camera into the trenches, producing an unprecedented flood of soldier’s-eye images of industrial warfare. Kodak even advertised its new camera directly to soldiers, encouraging them to “Make your own picture record of the War.”
George Eastman had already pioneered cameras that separated photo-taking from the difficult process of developing film—you mailed a Kodak back to the company, which returned prints along with a freshly loaded camera. But the original cameras were bulky and expensive, nearly $900 today. The Vest Pocket Kodak, introduced in 1912, changed all that. The size of a whiskey flask and priced at an attainable $200 today, the VPK’s sturdy metal frame could be tucked into a pocket and extended like a miniature accordion for use. “You wear it like a watch and it’s just about as handy,” Kodak said. It was the perfect camera to take to war.
Soldiers from all nations shot images of Gallipoli beaches, No-Man's-Land, and the legendary truce on Christmas Day 1914, when Germans and British shared food and kicked a soccer ball together. Many images were kept private, but some were leaked to the press, and scandalized authorities tightened control over the cameras. Today, the same tension exists with soldiers’ phone footage, their unalloyed record versus the official story.
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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.
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