LARRY BURROWS
May 29, 1926 – February 10, 1971
This week marks the 50 year anniversary of Larry Burrows's death. On February 10th, 1971 the helicopter in which he was traveling to photograph the invasion of Laos was shot down, killing all on board. Burrows began covering the Vietnam War for LIFE Magazine in 1962 and over the course of the next decade created a body of work that stands as the preeminent photographic document of that conflict.
Burrows was born in London in 1926. At age 16, he began working in the lab of LIFE Magazine's London bureau. His photographs from the 1950's, on assignment for LIFE, were widely published. His memorable image of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at a Royal Air Force station in 1954, with his back to the camera, typified Burrows' uncanny ability to capture layers of nuance and meaning through a person's body language.