French Photographic Images of the Hero during World War One.

The article looks at the role of photographic images of the hero in the legitimization of the French Army and World War I itself in the eyes of the French public. It examines the reasons why photography was such a significant medium for conveying information about the war and its heroes and discusses how photographs legitimized the war through the process of cognitive dissonance, a concept of social psychology that is defined as a defense mechanism of the psyche.