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Time Magazine
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
How D-Day: The Camera Soldier Preserves Important History Using Immersive Tech
Friday marks 81 years since D-Day, the largest naval, air and land operation in history on June 6, 1944, in Normandy, France. Now, a new documentary will immerse viewers into the action of that pivotal day. Co-produced by TIME Studios's immersive division and the Emmy-nominated immersive documentary team Targo, D-Day: The Camera Soldier— available on the headset Apple Vision Pro —puts users into footage taken by photographer Richard Taylor, a soldier who filmed the landing on Omaha Beach in northwestern France, which saw the most casualties of all of the five beaches that the Allies targeted. It profiles Taylor's daughter Jennifer Taylor-Rossel, 67, who always struggled to relate to her short-tempered father and only saw her father's D-Day footage after his death. Researching her father's past—and venturing to Normandy from Connecticut—made her feel like she was close to him for once. 'Well, I'm crying,' Taylor-Rossel said after viewing the experience for the first time at TIME's Manhattan office on May 30. She had come armed with his Purple Heart, Silver Star, dog tags, and a folder full of letters he wrote about D-Day and photos from his time at war, even a picture of him eating ice cream in Paris. During the 20-minute immersive experience, she smiled when she saw footage of her trip to Normandy and gasped loudly when she watched her father get shot in the arm. The first thing she said when she took off the headset was, 'I hope we don't get into another war.' The immersive experience comes at a time when there are fewer and fewer D-Day veterans alive to talk about what it was like on that fateful day. Immersive media is one key way to preserve stories of people who lived through D-Day for future generations. Here's a look at the man behind the camera on Omaha Beach and what to expect when you're watching D-Day: The Camera Soldier. Who was Richard Taylor? Richard Taylor was born in Iowa in 1907 and left school at the age of 15 to take an apprenticeship at a photography studio. After working as a photographer in New York for several years, he enlisted, at 35, into the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army, charged with documenting World War II. He covered the Battle of the Bulge, Malmedy massacre, and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. 'Remember we are essentially reporters,' the manual for Signal Corps members says, 'and the job is to get front line news and action…There is little time when in combat for the niceties of photography. Concentrate on good subjects and good basic camera performance, and telling a coherent story. Then you will have done your job.' In a July 1944, roundup of newsreel footage of D-Day broadcast in U.S. theaters, TIME called Taylor's footage from a landing barge under fire on Omaha Beach 'The finest shot of all.' When Taylor had Jennifer, he was in his early 50s and had been married twice before. He'd often complain about pain in his feet from too many nights sitting in cold water in foxholes throughout the war. He didn't really talk about D-Day, though she remembers the first time she saw a big scar on his arm, and when she asked him what happened, he stated very matter of factly that he got shot on D-Day. It's thought that he got hit with a piece of shrapnel. After he died in 2002, Taylor-Rossel found a box of his letters and paraphernalia from the war, but wasn't sure what to do with the items. A decade later, in 2022, a military history expert named Joey van Meesen contacted her, interested in researching Taylor's life and asked her if she saw the footage he shot on D-Day. When she said she had not, he sent it to her. She went out to meet him in Normandy. Taylor-Rossel describes her father as difficult, remote, and hard to have a relationship with. But 'Normandy was the place where I felt connected with him because I had done all of this research on him.' A product of that research is D-Day: The Camera Soldier. What it's like to experience D-Day: The Camera Soldier The Apple Vision Pro projects D-Day: The Camera Soldier onto a big screen, wherever you are viewing it. Users will hear Taylor's biography as they flip through an album of family photos, literally turning the pages themselves. Then, viewers are plopped down in the middle of Normandy American Cemetery with Joey van Meesen. Taylor-Rossel said she felt tears welling up in her eyes when she was surrounded by the D-Day grave-markers while wearing the headset, 'knowing that my dad was there and survived it, but then you look at all these men that didn't survive it.' There's one foreshadowing letter written by Taylor in cursive that users can pick up with their hands and move closer to their headset, in which he says he's 'anxious' about D-Day and 'if I live through it, it's going to be rather rough.' Then there's a box of objects that viewers can pick up themselves, like his dog tags, a thermos, a rations box, and a photo of Taylor holding his camera. Users will find it hard to get a grip on this replica of the camera he used on D-Day. That's intentional, says director Chloé Rochereuil: 'What struck me the most when I held it in real life was how heavy it was. It's a very big object, it's very hard to use. It made me just realize how incredibly difficult it must have been for him to carry this equipment while documenting a battlefield. And that makes the work even more significant.' The experience zooms in on the faces of soldiers, which are colorized. 'They're all like my son's age,' Taylor-Rossel says, marveling at how young the D-Day soldiers were after viewing the experience. As the barge lands on Omaha Beach, viewers begin to hear a male narrator who is supposed to be Richard Taylor, speaking straight from letters that Taylor wrote to family around the time of D-Day. 'In the next six or seven hours, hell would break loose,' he wrote in one. In another, reflecting on the moment when he got hit in the arm by a piece of shrapnel, he wrote, 'Thank God, I made it to the beach without getting more' and described having a hole in his arm 'large enough to insert an egg.' Rochereuil says she was not trying to do a play-by-play historical reenactment or make a video game. D-Day: The Camera Soldier not only provides a glimpse at what it was like to be on Omaha Beach that day, but it also might appeal to viewers who, like Taylor-Rossel, may have had a hard time getting a loved one who served in World War II to open up about their experience. 'Parents are the closest people to us, but often we don't fully know who they were before we existed—like, what were their dreams? What were their fears?' Rochereuil says. 'Her story touches on something universal, which is a relationship that we can have with one parent.' 'The only way to connect people to history is by making it personal. It's no longer abstract. My hope is that immersive media will make history feel alive and relevant again'
Time Magazine
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
TIME Studios and TARGO Unveil Groundbreaking Immersive Documentary 'D-Day: The Camera Soldier' for Apple Vision Pro, Marking WWII's 80th Anniversary
Today, TIME Studios, the Emmy Award-winning film, television, and immersive division of TIME, and leading immersive studio TARGO announced the release of D-Day: The Camera Soldier, a 20-minute mixed-reality documentary debuting on Apple Vision Pro. Timed to the 80th anniversary of WWII's end, this experience reimagines historical storytelling through spatial video, AI-restored archives, and interactive elements. Blending cinematic storytelling with spatial video and AI-enhanced archival materials, D-Day: The Camera Soldier transports viewers into a hidden chapter of the D-Day landings. The story follows Jennifer Taylor, who, after decades of silence, embarks on a journey from Connecticut to Normandy to uncover her father's untold legacy as a combat cameraman. Audiences are invited to experience a deeply personal perspective on one of history's pivotal moments. 'At TIME Studios, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of how history is experienced. Non-fiction creators have risked everything to capture truth in its rawest form, forging powerful connections between history and humanity. Richard Taylor stands as a remarkable example of this dedication,' said Loren Hammonds, Head of Documentary at TIME Studios. 'TIME has long been a platform for these voices, from recognizing Richard's D-Day footage in the pages of TIME in 1944 to now, eight decades later, honoring his legacy by bringing his story to life through immersive spatial storytelling.' 'Immersive technology isn't just a glimpse of the future—it's ready now,' said Victor Agulhon, producer and co-founder of TARGO. 'But the real innovation isn't in the tech itself—it's in how we've made it disappear, letting powerful, human stories take the lead.' Key features of the experience include: Direct interaction with authentic WWII relics—viewers can flip through photo albums, handle artifacts, and read letters, mirroring Jennifer's journey. AI-driven remastering transforms 2D wartime footage into dimensional environments, pioneering new documentary techniques. Seamless transitions between levels of immersion, guided by the user's exploration. Executive producers on the project include TIME Studios' Loren Hammonds and Matthew O'Rourke, and TARGO's Victor Agulhon, Chloé Rochereuil, and Anthony Giacchino. 'As an immersive director, my goal is to break the barrier between the audience and the story — and that's exactly what D-Day: The Camera Soldier does,' said Chloé Rochereuil, director and three-time Emmy nominee. 'As Jennifer dives deeper into her father's legacy, the viewer is drawn alongside her, transitioning seamlessly between different levels of immersion in the media.' 'This isn't just a story about the past—it's an invitation into a memory,' said Matthew O'Rourke, Emmy-nominated Executive Producer (MLK: Now Is The Time). 'By blending documentary filmmaking with immersive technology, we're creating a deeply personal way to experience history.' To experience the D-Day Camera Soldier immersive documentary, download it here on the App Store for Apple Vision Pro. About TIME Studios From one of the most globally iconic brands, TIME Studios is an Emmy Award®-winning television, film and immersive studio focusing on the development, production and distribution of premium unscripted and scripted storytelling that moves the world. With technical innovation and a brand defining visual language that dates back 102 years, TIME Studios aims to impact communities and the world at large with ideas that forge true progress. Combining the industry's leading creators with TIME, one of the most trusted brands that reaches an audience of over 120 million people globally, TIME Studios is uniquely positioned to bring massive audiences to the world's most impactful stories. About TARGO TARGO is a leading immersive studio dedicated to creating high-quality nonfiction storytelling in virtual and mixed reality. Known for pushing the boundaries of documentary filmmaking, the Paris-based team has earned three Emmy nominations and critical acclaim for its human-centered, visually striking experiences.
