'There is an air of expectant calm; no evidence of artillery fire or shot and shell, just a scene that suggests a successful landing . . . all of that would change by the afternoon, and the keen young men in these photographs would end the day fighting for their lives.'

--Christopher Pugsley

The Gallipoli campaign was one of New Zealand's darkest and most dramatic, one that resulted in a devastating loss of life and cultivated a lasting legacy of sacrifice and nationhood.

This carefully chosen selection from the Auckland War Memorial Museum's extensive catalogue, with many images never published before, sheds new light on New Zealand's Anzac story. Through soldiers' amateur photography - candid, unassuming, revealing and, at times, haunting - The Anzacs charts life for those who served in Gallipoli: from leaving New Zealand and encountering an unexpected landscape to the realities of combat and dealing with death and loss. It is a book that casts an unstinting eye on the history - and the men who lived it - presenting events as they unfolded through the photographic lens.

The Anzacs is a poignant, true-life account of Gallipoli, captured by those who experienced the war and not merely observed it.