The Mud Soldier of Passchendaele

I've been in London for a meeting involving my WW1 'Then & Now' project and took the chance to visited the art installation in Trafalgar Square marking 100th anniversary of the start of the battle of Passchendaele. A mud soldier made with clay and sand from Flanders Fields is being left to dissolve in the elements. With todays rain he is already starting to melt.

This image was taken using my phone camera on a selfie stick. Small displays of poppies are on tall plinths next to the display and I thought having them in focus and not the soldier would work better. I have added some post shot processing also to highlight the fading of the soldier.

The battle lasted just over 3 months and claimed at least 500,000 killed, injured or simply missing, consumed by the mud. I plan to visit the battlefields in October when I'm showing a group of retired soldiers around Flanders Fields, it will be a sobering visit.