LARRY BURROWS- WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

Larry Burrows: Doomed Photographer
Eyes to the Horror

In the late afternoon of the 10th of February 1971 the English photojournalist Larry Burrows was pronounced dead after his helicopter was shot down by the Vietnam People's Army in Laos. An incident which also took the life of fellow french photographer Henri Huet who too, boarded that disastrous helicopter flight. Burrows in the wake of his death had managed to show the world the true horrors of war and the length of terror these soldiers were facing both on and off the battlefield. His main accomplishment was his extensive coverage of the Vietnam war between 1965 til his death in 1971. Many of his photos appeared in multiple magazine especially, Life magazine where he was first discovered and worked for since he was only 16 years old; as a result, with their wide audience figures this publication had at the time, his photos were widely praised and inspired many figures to drum up support against this conflict.
 All these photos taken during this period of unrest where collected back together and published in a book pleasantly titled: "Vietnam". This was both a celebration of his work in the conflict as well as a epitaph to his legacy as a photojournalist, this book can truly be seen as his magnum opus.

My Copy of Larry Burrows Vietnam Work

One of Burrows many Life Magazine Covers

Never one for Censorship, Burrows let his photos do the talking!

He tried to Capture all angles of the War

As you can see, many of his photographs encapsulated the real brutal nature of war; with many of his photos displaying injuries, corpses and people who are in dire need of any help. All of his shots were taken without any staging or any form of setting up prior to the lens shutting, before burning an image forever on a blacken screen, a light to our eyes. All his snaps were from the cuff, what you see is what really happened through his eyes. As a result this gave a more authentic look into America's effort to dispel the powerful communist Viet Cong from attaining the country.
 With his wide use of scenery and broad aspects, Burrows stressed the true meaning of team work within his pictures. Each of his images caught a large section of the battlefield, with both the aspects of fighting and artillery bombardment along with the dead and wounded who are left both in the foreground and in the horizon to fight the death within themselves. Not only that, but Burrows successfully managed to highlight the vast and always dense green jungle that the solider waded through on a daily basis which strongly contrasted with the continual appearance of blood and annihilation visible all around these backdrops.    

War is Never Pretty

Additionally, through out his work he focused on individuals too both on and off the arena of war, no matter if they were fighting or not. As shown above, he enjoyed to target people who he felt best represented the daily struggle to survive in this harsh environment. He photographed the needy with various wounds; alive or dying, soldiers committing to the fight, blasting all kinds of weaponry to hold back the advancing forces, and of course the locals who were caught in the eye of the hurricane; whether they favored the Americans liberation or not. This as a result help to spotlight at home the dangers of what was out there and lurked hidden in the wild grass. This as a result, made his work become a weapon in its own right to be used against the Government and support the leave out of Vietnam.          

In the Heart of the Battle

Level of Detail within his shots has never been overlooked

As history has progress and we now look back on this doomed conflict, we seem to use Burrow's photos to help illustrate the great amount of lost America faced in Vietnam but, also that War itself is never a pleasant experience. Burrows along with his strong colours, surrounding and faces all in his photos, managed to run home the genuine grim reality of what was going out there in the jungle. Sadly, as he continued to work he too became a target and his death not only helped to add a little more truth in his work it also added more power to his photos.



- THURSTON

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