I did come across another Hurley image which I think was previously not known to have a composite derivative :

http://lifeasdaddy.typepad.com/lifeasdaddy/2008/09/the-unmistakable-photographic-compositions-of-frank-hurley-and-some-interesting-questions-of-copyright.html

Thank you for your comment. Yes B02209 is indeed a composite image put together by AFC photographer Ossie Coulson c 1918. The photo montage at P01726.003 is also reproduced in our collection at P04934.003. In both versions, as you have correctly identified, the central image is the aircraft shown to the left of B02209. Unfortunately the Memorial does not know the source of the aircraft which appears to the right of B02209, but it would have come from a photograph Coulson had access to during his time in Palestine.

Composites such as these were not an unusual part of First World War photography. Often it was not possible for Official War Photographers to shoot the images they wanted, so they produced composite images that combined fragments from different negatives. It was a controversial practice however, with Captain Frank Hurley, Australia’s second appointed official First World War photographer, having a number of hostile exchanges with Charles Bean, the official correspondent for the Australian Imperial Force (and driving force behind the establishment of the Australian War Memorial) regarding the former’s use of composites.

For more information on composites and the close association between war and photography please click here.

Coulson was a Flight Sergeant with the No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps and worked in the photographic section (SERN 455). He was commissioned Hon. Lieutenant on Armistace Day. He is also the donor and/or maker of other material in the AWM collection, in this case most notably photograph ID number P01726.003.

If you examine P01726.003 you will see the central image of the montage is the fighter plane shown above at left, with surrounding cloud. However the fighter plane shown above at right does not appear in the central image of the montage obscuring part of the cloud where you would expect to find it.

This implies that the photograph here, B02209, has been composed by the melding of two separate photographs - a composite image.

Perhaps you would give us your thoughts about the possibility that this is a composite image?