Ready for the great Somme push, officer and signallers keep a sharp look-out over the Sausage valley 1916 - 1918

This is an old photographic print by Realistic Travels called, Ready for the great Somme push, officer and signallers keep a sharp look-out over the Sausage valley. When I look at this photograph, I think about mark-making. What does it mean to make a mark? In this image, the marks are soldiers, guns, barbed wire, and trenches, etched onto the land, right? I imagine the photographer, hauling their equipment into the valley, trying to capture a moment of intense looking, intense waiting. The tones are muted. There are very subtle variations between light and dark. This is not war as heroic spectacle but as a kind of grey anxiety. There's something poignant about the name Realistic Travels, as if reality is just another destination, or a brand. Is this realism or reality? And for whom? I wonder, who were these soldiers? What were they feeling, looking out into the valley?