Larry Burrows, Lang Vei (border of South Vietnam and Laos), February 7, 1971
This photograph by Roger Mattingly was one of the last taken of Larry Burrows.
Operation Prairie - Hill 484, 1966
Relief of the Khe Sanh, 1968
"Puff the Magic Dragon", Mekong Delta, 1966
Marines recover wounded under fire, Operation Prairie, 1966
"Reaching Out", Mutter Ridge, Nui Cay Tri, 1966
Men of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines in Prayer, 1966
Communion Near the DMZ, 1966
Nguyễn Thị Tròn, 1968
Yankee Papa 13: Farley shouts to his gunner "My gun is jammed!", 1965
Mother and Child, 1964
South Vietnamese Marine, 1964
The City, London, 1959
Brigette Bardot Prepares to Meet the London Press, 1959
Louis Armstrong Practicing on a Plane Ride from Nigeria to the Gold Coast in 1956
Winston Churchill, 1954
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.
