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When the
helicopter carrying Larry Burrows was lost over
Laos
on February 10, 1971 the Burrows family lost a husband and father, and
the world lost perhaps the most poetic visual chronicler of the war in
Vietnam. Yet before he became so
involved with the American involvement in
Southeast Asia
, Burrows had proven himself as an enormously accomplished
photographer, making portraits ranging from Tibetan children to candid
shots of Winston Churchill. On
exhibit at
Laurence Miller
Gallery, from March 10 through April 30, 2005, will be a selection of
Burrows’ work that shows a tremendous range, from a photographer of
princes, politicians and monuments to generals, soldiers and combat.
Among the featured works will be 8 images from One
Ride with Yankee Papa 13, one of the most stirring photo-essays ever made. A story on
James Farley and Yankee Papa 13 had been commissioned both to
personalize the growing
US
involvement in
Vietnam
and to inform the US
public. The essay that ran in Life told the intended story, but
focused on the events of one day, March 31, 1965. The intense and
poignant events of this one day by some measures herald the beginning
of the war, and by many measures capture the essence of what was to
become a 10-year ordeal. From
the opening shot, in which a young and confident James Farley is
introduced before an attempted rescue mission, to bloody footage of
the ensuing barrage of gunfire, to the final return to base, the essay
captures the universal humanity of man embroiled in the inhumanity of
war.
Larry Burrows photographs are widely published, most notably in two
extraordinary books, Larry Burrows Compassionate Photographer
by the Editors of Life, and more recently Larry Burrows Vietnam,
which won the 2002 Prix Nadar as the Best Photography book of the
year.
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