Vietnam war Photographers come home

[Ron Marshall]

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/03/lost.html

[Gerry]

thanks very much, am a fan of Burrows.

[claudiocambon]

A little story that was told to me by a French journalist who knew Burrows in Vietnam:

You may remember that Capa was the official D-Day photographer, the one embedded photojournalist with US forces that went up on the beach with everyone else. Capa, who was ecstatic about what he shot (not to mention surviving), sent the footage to be processed, but you may also remember that a very young assistant boiled the film to death during the final wash, destroying all but a few negatives. The name of that assistant? None other than Larry Burrows himself, who told this acquaintance of mine that he had committed to photojournalism already then as a way to pay Capa back.

[Mark Sampson]

That's a nice story but not confirmed by the facts.. see the current issue of digitaljournalist.org for stories and links.

[claudiocambon]

That's a nice story but not confirmed by the facts.. see the current issue of digitaljournalist.org for stories and links.

Thanks for this, but do you have a specific link? I didn't know where to poke around, and general searches on Larry Burrows didn't yield anything about this.

[Mark Sampson]

Well I believed that story too, until I went to www.digitaljournalist.org. I read the articles there by people who knew and worked with him, and looked at the portfolio there. Then I took a look at wikipedia; somewhere in all that I read that he did not damage Capa's D-Day film. Of course Capa's life is full of stories, many he told himself. The one I like is how the LIFE lab manager offered to fire the offending tech... and Capa replied that if LIFE fired the tech, Capa would never again photograph for them. A sa one-time lab tech, I did appreciate that story.
Back to subject though, Burrows was a fine war photographer, one of the very best; his work should never be forgotten.

[claudiocambon]

Well I believed that story too, until I went to www.digitaljournalist.org. I read the articles there by people who knew and worked with him, and looked at the portfolio there. Then I took a look at wikipedia; somewhere in all that I read that he did not damage Capa's D-Day film. Of course Capa's life is full of stories, many he told himself. The one I like is how the LIFE lab manager offered to fire the offending tech... and Capa replied that if LIFE fired the tech, Capa would never again photograph for them. A sa one-time lab tech, I did appreciate that story.
Back to subject though, Burrows was a fine war photographer, one of the very best; his work should never be forgotten.

I didn't find anything that either contradicted or supported the story on that site. John Morris (the LIFE editor at the time of DDay in London) has a piece there about his recollections of the Capa assignment, but it doesn't name names. (There was also an email address for him, but it doesn't work!) I have never been sure whether I haven't been able to corroborate the story simplybecause it is not true, or because professional honor code did not want to reveal the name of the lab tech (be it Larry Burrows or anyone else) so as not to Bill Buckner-ize him in the photo world in perpetuity.

For the record I find the story, if true, inspiring, also touching when one considers that both Burrows and Capa would die in Vietnam.

[Ron Marshall]

For anyone who visits Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), there is a memorial to all of the photographers that died during the Vietnam war, at the war museum. It is an entire room of the museum, with photos of each person and their bio.

[Gerry]

If Burrows being the Tech who broiled he D-day film is true, that a amazing tale, and if so he did pay Capa back!

I read that the Life editors who printed the few negs that survived noted in the text that the reason the images were blurry was because the Photographer was shaking so badly from shooting in those conditions. Imagine that your in the first wave of D-day and the film gets toasted, WOW.

In 1999 I met a Ex-Pat on Soi Cowboy(sex bar area) in Bangkok who said he knew Burrows well, guess Burrows was a great guy. Spent the night with this fellow running all over Bangkok he even gave me a book(photo book) that he supposedly got from Burrows, still have it on the shelf beside me.