photographers+and+photography+in+Vietnam

Photographers in Vietnam Chap R

The Vietnam War was one of the most disastrous in US history. There were large movements against the war at home, largely because the average American citizen could see what was happening to Americans at war. It is hard not to look at pictures of the Vietnamese tunnels and terrain and not get the sense that the Vietnamese where a step ahead of the Americans. The reason this was known to the majority of the American public was because of a select few, who risked their lives to bring the war home, the photographers. These are the stories of some of the people who risked their lives to take the pictures that you may look at and not think much about. Well, the next time you look at one of those pictures remember, somebody had to go and put their life on the line to give you that picture. Eddie Adams had an amazing career in photography. In his forty five year career as a photographer he took home quite a bit of hardware. He accumulated over five hundred awards, one of them being the esteemed Pulitzer Prize. He won it for a picture he took in Vietnam in 1968. It showed a Brigadier General executing a bound Vietcong prisoner with a handgun in the middle of the street. It is a picture that moves you, if even just for a second, it makes you realize how ugly war can be. I can see how this picture could win an award because it makes you feel both sides of the war. He aimed to get photographs to illustrate the average infantry soldier. He was a great photographer who was lucky enough to get out of Vietnam alive. He started his career as a combat photographer early considering he got out of high school, enlisted in the marines, and then was a combat photographer in Korea. He photographed thirteen different wars. He was an incredible man. David Hume Kennerly was another photographer in Vietnam who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He won because of his numerous masterpieces that illustrated the war in Vietnam. Kennerly became the official white house photographer. One of his pictures shows a line of soldiers trying to maneuver a swamp. They have water up to their waist. To me it looks like the water has impaired them so much that if an enemy started firing from a concealed spot they would be able to take out the entire group easily. It shows how the terrain favored the defending Vietcong over the attacking Americans. Dick Swanson was sent to Vietnam for work by //Life// Magazine. He has won multiple awards for his life time work. It turned out to be a good thing that he went to Vietnam because he met his wife there. He also fled Saigon with his extended family before it fell. Miraculously he survived the Vietnam conflict as well. Those are just three of the photographers who were in Vietnam during the war. All of them managed to escape with their lives, but there were too many photographers who did not.
 * Eddie Adams**
 * David Hume Kennerly**
 * Dick Swanson**