Larry Burrows

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Larry Burrows (born May 29, 1926 in London , UK, † February 10, 1971 in Laos ) was a photographer and war correspondent .

He worked as a photographer from 1945. Burrows received the Robert Capa Gold Award three times . In 1967 he was named Photographer of the Year by NPPA (National Press Photographers Association). Burrows photographed for 15 cover stories in “ Life ” magazine .

During the Korean War in 1950, Burrows wanted to participate as a war photographer, but was too young. He initially worked for the news magazine "Life" in the Middle East and in the Congo. At the age of 36, Burrows was in Vietnam for the first time in 1962, when the Vietnam War was still in its infancy. In 1962/63 he decided to stay in Vietnam until the end of the war, which he also informed his wife Vicky. Although he was still "green behind the ears", as his colleague David Halberstam put it , Burrows quickly found his way through the chaos of the war. In Vietnam, Burrows made his first experiences as a war correspondent in close proximity to the fighting. He was talented, brave and had sympathy for the Vietnamese people. That made him - besideHenri Huet - one of the most famous photographers of the Vietnam War. He shot some of the most famous pictures about this war (e.g. "Nui Cay Tri").

Burrows and his colleagues came under fire because he sent pictures to the editorial staff, "which are barely bearable, but when they are unbearable, people keep turning." His pictures were supposed to show the horror of war, but they couldn't be too horrific. Like many other war photographers, his work led to greater acceptance of violence in the media. However, they have also changed the public image of the war.

On February 10, 1971, Burrows lost his life in a helicopter crash in Laos . Huet and two other renowned photographers, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto, and seven Vietnamese soldiers were also killed in the crash. In 2002 the book Vietnam was awarded the Prix ​​Nadar . Decades later, the four photographers received posthumous honors at the Museum of the History of Journalism in Washington, DC, which opened in 2008

The fate of the photographers was described several times in lectures and books by the then director of the Associated Press picture agency Horst Faas .

Publications

  • Horst Faas (Ed.): Requiem. By the photographers who died in Vietnam and Indochina , Random, New York 1997, ISBN 0-679-45657-0
  • Horst Faas, Richard Pyle "Lost Over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery, and Friendship", Publisher: Da Capo Press; ISBN 0306812517

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spiegel Online: Four Dead and a Glass Grave , April 3, 2008. Last accessed May 10, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Burrows, Larry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British photographer and war correspondent
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1971
Place of death Laos