Seventy years ago , thousands of Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to take on the might of the German army . The soldiers all carried guns and grenades , but Private Tony Vaccaro of the U.S. Army was armed with something else as well : a camera . In the days , weeks and months that followed the D-Day landings in northern France , Vaccaro , who was born in Pennsylvania , took more than 8,000 photographs with his trusty 35mm Argus C3 . The pictures -- many of them raw , graphic , disturbing -- follow his advance , and that of his unit , the 83rd Infantry Division , from the beaches to Berlin . They represent one of the most complete collections of images of World War II , as seen through the eyes of someone who fought during the conflict . Now a spritely 92-year-old , the former G.I . is back in Normandy to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings with an exhibition . Vaccaro 's show , `` Shots of War '' is on display at the Caen Memorial , a stone 's throw from Omaha Beach where the infantryman came ashore 70 years ago . `` The first thing I see is this gun , looking at me , '' he told CNN on a tour of the exhibition , gesturing at a black-and-white photo of the intimidating weaponry that confronted him as he stepped onto French soil . Vaccaro 's status as a regular soldier who happened to be carrying a camera -- rather than an official war photographer -- meant he had to make do with whatever equipment he could find . After begging and borrowing rolls of film , he would process his pictures by night , improvising by pouring chemicals into two army helmets to develop and fix the images . But it also meant he could get closer to the action , and to the people involved : the result is a series of photos which are often more candid than the official pictures of war . `` I was with the same unit , I knew everyone intimately , '' he says . `` The intimacy was at such a level that if I aimed a camera , they did n't react to it . '' Vaccaro documented the devastation left in Normandy in the wake of D-Day and across Luxemburg , Belgium and Germany after years of warfare : villages and towns ravaged by the conflict , corpses lining the roads . He also captured some of the joys of liberation : a shot of a G.I . embracing a young French girl as others dance in the background is among his best-known images . In a short film made to accompany the exhibition , Vaccaro explains that his dual role as soldier and photographer meant he faced a constant choice between his gun and his camera . `` I considered the situation and I said 'first the rifle , then photographs ' -- I was careful to make sure I would take photographs when I felt safe . If I did n't feel safe I did n't take the picture . '' And he says that the speed at which he was forced to work also had an impact on the final images . `` Sometimes I was scared because I felt that while I was taking photographs perhaps the Nazis would kill me , would shoot me , so what I did was to work very quickly . Many times I did n't even look through the viewfinder , I just shot . '' After the war , Vaccaro became a professional portrait and fashion photographer , working for magazines including `` Life '' and `` Look , '' taking pictures of stars including Charlie Chaplin , Marlene Dietrich , Pablo Picasso and Sophia Loren . Decades on , Vaccaro says he is disturbed at our failure to learn the lessons of the past and ensure that conflicts like the one he fought in -- and photographed -- are consigned to history . `` I think that the world , the way it 's going , it has n't changed at all . You 'd think we would learn a lesson with World War II but we are arming like hell , '' he says . `` One of the greatest thing we should have , we do n't have . A Department of Peace , we do n't have it . You 'd be surprised the need that we have to have that . '' He has returned to Normandy many times in the decades since D-Day , and he 's determined that this 70th anniversary visit wo n't be his last . `` I 'm going to do this at 102 , '' he insists , saying he 'll be back in 2024 . `` My doctor says : ' I do n't know how you do it . ' '' READ MORE : 'It 's too early to forget , ' insists veteranREAD MORE : The myths and reality of D-Day .
Former U.S. soldier Tony Vaccaro carried a camera with him while fighting in WWII . Vaccaro shot 8,000 pictures of what he saw on way from beaches of Normandy to Berlin . Photos show devastation left in wake of conflict , but also joys of liberation . The former G.I . became a professional portrait photographer after the war .