But such monuments to the fallen, designed so that ''we shall remember them'', have in some cases become forgotten: worn and overgrown, or built around as towns and cities grow.
Where some memorials initially held a sacred pride of place, they may now be found in the middle of a busy intersection, overshadowed by signs, shops or advertising billboards, or they maintain a lonely vigil looking out over deserted vistas or fields populated only by stock, rarely visited or viewed by humans.
In Anzac (the book accompanies an exhibition at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, which will subsequently tour the country), New Zealand photographer Laurence Aberhart ensures such memorials are revisited and recorded.
The large black-and-white photographs of the monuments - obelisks, arches, cenotaphs, crosses and columns - all with a single figure of a soldier, are simple, solitary, and evoke a timeless feel. They invite the reader to stop, reflect, and in doing so, remember.
Their ''place'' in our collective memory, our culture and history is questioned, as their place in our landscape fades.
A foreword by Dunedin Public Art Gallery director Cam McCracken and introduction, titled The Lonely Soldier, by New Zealand historian Jock Phillips explain the history around the commissioning and building of the memorials, and the reasons for the decline of many.
As we mark Anzac Day and the centenary of World War 1, this book offers a poignant and timely reminder of the sacrifices made by Anzac servicemen whose names are still etched on our memorials, if no longer in our memories.
- Helen Speirs is ODT books editor.
Giveaway
The ODT has two copies of Anzac by Laurence Aberhart (RRP $60), to give away courtesy of Victoria University Press. For your chance to win a copy, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email, and "Anzac Book Competition'' in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, April 29.
Winners of last week's giveaway, Creeks and Kitchens by Maurice Gee, courtesy of Bridget Williams Books, were: Peter Grenfell, of Oamaru, and
Jane Cloete, Gail Arthur, Chris Bain and Barry Jones, all of Dunedin.
