During WWI, the postcard industry reached its peak, as thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of Western Europe sent postcards to mothers, wives, sweathearts and friends back home, and postcards with messages of love and support were sent from home to the frontlines.
Photographic artist Lee Karen Stow brings together postcard-sized botanical images of the common cornflower poppy with a series of WWI original postcards exploring the roles of women during four years of conflict, after which the accepted perception of what women were capable of changed irrevocably.
Poppies & Postcards forms part of Stow’s major documentary project Poppies (Women and War) sponsored by Arts Council England which tells the stories of women affected by and involved in wars and conflicts, from WWI to the present day.