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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2003-07-14
Reviews: 'Larry Burrows: Vietnam' and 'Lost over Laos'
What Photographers Should Be Reading
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Editors note: this review covers two books: "Larry Burrows: Vietnam," Introduction by David Halberstam, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002. Recommended to be read in conjunction with "Lost over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery and Friendship," by Richard Pyle and Horst Faas, Da Capo Press, 2003.
The collected photographs of Larry Burrows have been out of print and largely inaccessible for far too long. With this book, that comes to an end. There is a wealth of work here that reminds us of Burrows' talent.
The introduction by David Halberstam helps us get into the mind of the photographer, particularly regarding the way Burrows worked in Vietnam.
Burrows' approach, Halberstam says, was to figure out the story of the war at that moment, and then tell that story. "He (Burrows) would spend time in Saigon listening to his colleagues, trying to figure out where the good (or hot) areas were and what was at stake, trying to decide what he
wanted to portray. And then he would go into the field by himself, settle in, and wait for the action. In time, he developed an almost perfect sense of what was at issue in the war at that particular moment, and what it was he wanted to shoot. Sooner or later it would all happen, and he would have his story."
As this is largely a picture book, a good companion volume to read with it is the recently published, "Lost Over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery and Friendship." This is the story of Burrows and three other photographers, Henri Huet, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto, all who died in the same helicopter. The authors, both Associated Press veterans, (Faas won two Pulitzers for photography) tell the background story of each photographer and Vietnam war, then go on a search for the crash site in modern day Laos.
The chapter titled, "Bao Chi" (Vietnamese for "journalist") is one of the strongest. We see how reporters and photographers worked and the conditions they faced. The camaraderie of being in the press corps in those days comes through.
One of the best summations of these feelings came from African-American reporter Wally Terry. He said, "I covered the civil rights movement from
Selma and Birmingham to Watts and Harlem, and I have never felt the kind of connection to my fellow journalists on those stories as I did with the ones I worked with in Vietnam."
The journey by the authors to discover the crash site is a pilgrimage. This journey involves a search for evidence about the crash and completes a story of a war fading into history. It's a journey worth making and a book worth reading.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Book: Larry Burrows: Vietnam
Book: Lost over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery and Friendship
Jim McNay's Member Page
Related Email Addresses:
Jim McNay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu
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