world war 2?

Wow! Great question!.

My grandmother worked in a defense plant wiring aircraft. They were not allowed to take photos beyond the factory gates.My grandfather worked as a longshoreman and only selected press and officials with security credentials were allowed to take photos in the port.

During WW2, the media was closely censored as were movies and newsreels for security purposes, and the images that were released were often part of a carefully planned propaganda and morale-building campaign. Anyone caught taking photos near sensitive areas such as defense plants, military installations equipment and bases and in Britain, coastal areas, railways and bridges as well was liable to be arrested and prosecuted and in any case during the war photo film and equipment was not generally available to civilians. Much the same regulations applied in german-occupied Europe and in Russia.

An interesting footnote is that in the early stages of the planning for the invasion of mainland Europe , the British Govt. made an appeal to the public to send in any photos they had taken on holidays and trips to Europe. The main reason was for intelligence on the channel beaches of France and other potentially strategic locations there, but the public were not informed of this.

On the opposite side prior to the Invasion of Normandy, the BBC broadcast requests for any pictures that had been taken on holiday in occupied nations to produce accurate maps and models for the Overlord planners, naturally there were concerns that the Germans would hear the requests so no specific areas were broadcast.

Reportedly, director Alfred Hitchcock, who was a war photographer & filmmaker at the "front", recorded footage of British troops making initial contact with (& liberating) a concentration camp. His film is so horrifying, that it's never been released publically.

So one can assume, that any of the footage from WW2 was probably severely edited and/or to some degree staged for the cameras. It was a propaganda tool.