Since World War I, Australia has commissioned not only official artists but also photographers to document the story of Australians during wartime. Briton Herbert Baldwin (1880–1920) was Australia’s first commissioned war photographer, engaged to record Australian troops on the Western Front in late 1916 and early 1917. The first photographer commissioned by the Australian government during World War II was Damien Parer (1912–44). He served in the Middle East and North Africa, before joining Western forces in New Guinea in 1942. New Zealand-born George Silk (1916–2004) was the second photographer commissioned during World War II. He arrived in the Middle East in May 1940, before photographing the war campaign in the Pacific.