Dazzling blue uniforms and a rainbow amid the carnage: Incredible photos bring trench warfare in World War One to life in vivid colour
The poignant images show strewn bodies of the fallen and the camaraderie of soldiers
JAW-dropping retouched images show how colour can bring historic black and white photos to life.
Artist Frederic Duirez has redefined World War One as we know it by Photoshopping colourless photos.
Each snap has had different tones layered on top of the original photographs to bring new depth.
They offer an alternative look at the conflict that ravaged the world between 1914 and 1918.
The majority of Duirez’s photos focus on what life was like for the French soldiers on the front line.
Many capture the battalions stationed on the bank of Seille, in north-eastern France.
Others were snapped during the Battle of the Somme, which was fought by the British and French empires against the German allies.
During the bloody battle in northern France, more than one million soldiers lost their lives.
Tragically, French casualties totalled 200,000, whereas German and Britain suffered over 420,000 fatalities each.
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Not only does applying colour add interest to the images, it can also work to add lightness to the miserable scenes.
In one poignant picture, a rainbow forms in the skies over the Port-sur-Seille, as soldiers look towards the water behind the protective sandbags.
The historic images also offer a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of the troops.
Infantrymen are captured washing their own clothes and gathering around at a table to eat their meals.
Even though colourisation can help to revive some of the gloomy scenes, it can also be used to bring a sense of reality to the gritty images.
Some of the snaps encapsulate the brutal reality of war, including the moment soldiers try on new gas masks to see if they fit.
Horrifically, one of the vivid snaps shows the moment a troop was shot dead in the forest.
The man was eating when the attack occurred, causing him to slump over with food still in his hand.
Other moving images show the fallen being carried off for burial, or gloomy men packed together tightly in trenches.
Duirez’s colourised images offer a more detailed look at the military uniform of the army.
The French fought in light blue coloured clothes with rounded hard hats of the same colour.
In comparison, three Turkish men are pictured in billowing white trousers, ornate blazers and red hats.
The British troops sport light brown uniforms, with distinctive hats and thigh-high boots.
Duirez isn't the first artist to bring colour to historic black and white photos.
Marina Amaral, from Brazil, colourised dozens of iconic images, from the Queen's Coronation to D-Day.
And stunning retouched postcards from 1890 captured life in the seaside towns and ruined castles of Scotland in the Victorian age.