Arthur Mole

Arthur Samuel Mole (January 7, 1889 in Lexden, Essex, England – 14 August 1983 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US) was a British-born, naturalized American commercial photographer.

[1] He became famous for a series of "living photographs" made during World War I, in which tens of thousands of soldiers, reservists and other members of the military were arranged to form massive compositions.

[2] Executing photographs using such large numbers, and relying on lines of perspective stretching out more than a hundred meters, required a week of preparation and then hours to actually position the formations.

Mole would stand on his viewing tower and shout into a megaphone or use a long pole with a white flag to arrange the tens of thousands of soldiers into position.

[6] [7] According to Karen Schmitt, the Mole & Thomas company donated the profits of their photos to "the returning soldiers and to this country's efforts to re-build their lives."