Catherine Leroy

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Catherine Leroy (* 1945 in Paris , France ; † July 8, 2006 in Santa Monica , California ) was a photographer and war journalist who became known for her reports and pictures about the Vietnam War . She was one of the first female reporters to be active in the Vietnam War.

life and work

Leroy was probably born in Paris in 1945. After seeing a photo of the Vietnam War in Paris Match magazine in 1966 , she decided to become a journalist. She bought a plane ticket to Laos with no possibility of resignation . At the time, Leroy was just 21 years old and only had a Leica M2 and $ 100 with her on her trip . In Saigon , she turned to Horst Faas , then head of the Associated Press photo agency . This made her an accredited war correspondent . Leroy was the first accredited correspondent to participate in an attack by paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade on Operation Junction City . She was injured in the demilitarized zone of Vietnam in the aftermath of the Battle of Khe Sanh . During the Tet Offensive , Leroy was captured by the Vietnamese People's Army . She is considered to be the only war reporter who managed to free himself from the North Vietnamese prisoners of war by persuasion; Officers and soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army had their photos taken with her. This story was published in LIFE Magazine .

Her most famous picture from the Vietnam War, a corpsman in anguish ('A Desperate Medic'), shows the US Marine Vernon Wike trying to save a comrade who notices his sudden death and cries out in despair. The picture was taken during the fighting for Hill 881 (Hill 881) at the Battle of Khe Sanh.

After the end of the Vietnam War, she continued to work as a reporter. She reported on the Northern Ireland conflict , the Cyprus crisis , the Somalia conflict and theaters of war in Afghanistan , Iraq , Iran and Libya .

In 1972 Leroy directed Operation Last Patrol . The film was a report about Ron Kovic and other Vietnam veterans. In 1983 she co-wrote the book God Cried with Newsweek reporter Tony Clifton about the civil war in Lebanon .

She lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in the late 1980s . In the last years of her life she concentrated on her fashion label Pièce Unique . In 2002, Peter Howe interviewed her for the book Shooting Under Fire . In 2006, she died of lung cancer in California.

Awards

Publications

  • Catherine Leroy: Under fire: great photographers and writers in Vietnam . Random House, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-6358-2 .
  • Tony Clifton, Catherine Leroy: God cried . Quartet Books, 1983, ISBN 0-7043-2375-3 .

literature

  • Sebastian Knoll: Catherine Leroy . In: Photographers at the front. From Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus, Munich a. a .: Prestel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7913-5863-5 , pp. 81-102.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bob Cole: 173rd Airborne Bde: Miscellaneous Photos in Vietnam. In: 173rdairborne.net. Retrieved February 23, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Donald R. Winslow: Vietnam War Photojournalist Catherine Leroy, 60th National Press Photographers Association, July 11, 2006, accessed February 23, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Operation Last Patrol in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  4. ^ Valerie J. Nelson: Catherine Leroy, 60; Was a photographer. Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2006, accessed February 23, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Catherine Leroy: 1946-2006. Chelsea Hotel, July 12, 2006, accessed February 23, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Phil Davison: Catherine Leroy: War photographer who brought the horror of the Vietnam conflict home to the American public. The Independent , July 17, 2006, accessed February 23, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Why Would Anyone Do That Job? The Digital Journalist, December 1, 2002, accessed February 23, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Leroy, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French photographer and war correspondent
DATE OF BIRTH 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 2006
Place of death Santa Monica