Customer Reviews

Larry Burrows: Vietnam

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Larry Burrows is perhaps one of the most underappreciated photojournalists of the 20th century. As a photographer for Life magazine in the 1960s, his images helped bring home to America the conflict in Vietnam, and Burrows' photographs showed a powerful sense of humanity, dignity, and even beauty that few 'war' photographers, before or since, have captured in their images. Burrows was able to see beyond the guns and the gore to bring back images that captured the human side of the conflict, and its effects on those caught in it. It's truly history's loss that Burrows was tragically killed in a missile attack in 1971, while covering the conflict he had been so drawn to.

Almost as tragic was the fact that for over 30 years, the images of this great photographer were obscure and nearly inaccessible: a retrospective ('Larry Burrows: Compassionate Photographer') was published shortly after his death, but second-hand copies of it are few, difficult to find, and expensive. A selection of his photographs was included in Horst Faas and Tim Page's 'Requiem', but otherwise no volume of Burrows' work has existed until now.

This book is an excellent and extensive collection of Larry Burrows' Vietnam War images, from his first reportage in 1962 (when the American presence was a small number of 'advisers') to shortly before his death in 1971 at the height of the war. It draws not only from his many published essays in Life, but also from the archive of his unpublished (and hence never-before-seen) works as well.

In short, it's a thorough, well-done book, the sort of treatment that Burrows' photographs have long deserved. Much more than a mere coffee-table book, it's the testament of one of history's great photojournalists.

The First Air Cav, along with Burrows and a group of other reporters, was dropped into the hills around the Marine's Combat Base in the Khe Sahn valley. The brass, all the way up to LBJ, were convinced that there were 30,000 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) heard core, well armed and trained regulars surrounding that belegered outpost. The photographers/reporters were in the same bullseye that we were. We all were surprised that the rockets that were roaring in on our firebase didn't seem to phase them in the least. They said that "I can't get any pictures hiding in a hole!" so they didn't start digging their's until just before the sun disappeared.
This book is from one of the bravest and most driven men that I have ever met-- and he inspired me to follow my dream of becoming a photo pro. He had been kissing his wife goodbye in Hong Kong since the start of the insanity and said to me over a warm beer that he hoped he'd live to see the day when he'd cover the closing ceremonies when the war ended. He went down in Laos in a Vietnamese helicopter long before that day came.

His body of work that we are left with is nothing less then perfection but to him they were just his "Normal images", some of which he liked better then others. (He saw himself as a storyteller.)I see them as cutting through the clutter of information overload that is our daily challange and the photographs remain the icons of the era. The sensitivity and empathy that was his 'eye' and style allowed his cameras to give us stories that are nothing less then high art. This was evident even to hard boiled Marine Generals who allowed him access to places that no other media person was ever shown. He instilled trust that was all. His total mastery of the technical limitations of his 35mm boxes made them an extension of his brain. Watching how he held these beautifuly made, but combat hardened, Leicas was a major learning experience for a wanna be Life photog like me. He was very generous with his knowledge of the camera retail shops in Hong Kong. He gave me the name of the manager of his favorite store and how to get the best prices out of him. (I got wounded before I could use the information.) All in all, Larry Burrows left an impression on this soldier of being a throughly nice person. He may have been an icon to the staff at Life and his gaggle of admirers but he treated everyone that he came in contact with as equals. I knew that he would never make it out of Vietnam alive and was saddened to hear of his death 3 years after my short encounter with him. I since have bought every book that has even a mentionn of him. Rest in peace, Larry. Your images will live for ever.

Thirty years later, I am forever seeking gateways of memory that have the power to evoke what has come to be termed the Vietnam era. Oh, how this country has forgotten what it is like to actually live in the grip of phantasmagoric violence perpetrated on an ever-escalating scale. Larry Burrow's, Vietnam will take you back into the time, the landscape of battle, and the soul of the people destined to play it all out. You will weep turning the pages. I certainly did.

The Vietnam war was defined as the first total media war, television was in the ascendancy but it was through newspapers and magazines that most people got there view of the suffering. The three greatest war photographers of all time (Robert Capa is the forth) brought the war to the breakfast tables of the world, Phillip Jones Griffiths, Donald McCullin and Larry Burrows produced pictures which showed the true horror and futility of the Vietnam conflict. McCullin through the pages of the Sunday Times Magazine, Jones Griffiths with his book "Vietnam Inc" and Burrows in the pages of "Life" magazine. Larry Burrows was given the massive task of showing the war in colour. Colour was regarded as being too pretty for the hard hitting task of showing war, also the actual technical limitations of the colour film of the time made Burrows task even more difficult. The sensitivity was very slow and getting the exposure absolutely spot on was imperitive. The steadyness and consideration needed to get the pictures are not condusive to the nerves in the midst of combat but Burrows had the metal to get the job done. This book brings together his work from 1963 till his death in 1971 in a way that shows not only his skill as a photographer but also as a journalist who could visualise the images and create the difinitive "picture story" The reproduction and layout are excellent and to see the images virtually as they would have appeared in Life are a credit to Larry's son Russell. This is a must for anyone interested in photography and photojournalism.

When I consider the concept "Photojournalism," Larry Burrows comes to mind.

His images, published in Life magazine, brought the heat of battle, the devastated countryside, the brutality of the Vietnam War into my safe, teenaged world here in the United States. He photographed the conflict from the early days of American involvement in 1962 until 1971, when he died in a helicopter shot down over the Vietnam-Laos border. His images stoked much of the anti-war sentiment that enveloped my generation.

To see his photo essays is to relive those tortured times. While depicting what are often horrifying moments, this book is, at the same time, a celebration of Burrows courage, compassion and nose for news. The pictures are brutal, poignant and at the time, timely. They represent photojournalism at it best; harsh reality raised to an art form.

I couldn't pass this book up. As this country prepares for the next war we should be mindful of the lessons of the one we lost. Larry Burrows appears to have gone everywhere in Vietnam carrying his Leicas and Nikons. His images are gritty, sad, shocking, poignant, and, yes beautiful. He is at his best when he captures the mind bending reactions in the faces of the men who fought the enemy and fought to stay alive. I don't think color has ever been used so well in combat photos. An artist and historian with a camera. This book is the legacy of a man whose compassion brought him too close to his subject. He died in a helicopter crash in an incursion into Laos in 1971. His images show his feeling for nuance, composition, storytelling and empathy. Only David Duncan's photographs of the Marines retreat in Korea compare with Burrows' combat sequences. And David Duncan was with his unit for a few days. Larry Burrows spend nine years, off and on, covering the Vietnam debacle and its impact on soldiers, civilians and country.

This book is an awesome collection of great photos. Larry Burrows did a fabulous job at capturing real life experiences in Vietnam. I commend him and David Halberstam for their professionalism and commitment to those soldiers who fought and died for our country. I only wish the descriptive captions were listed near the large photos in the book, not the back of the book. I'm sure the author had a reason for this. I strongly recommend this book.

Larry Burrows was embedded with my husband Sgt. Albert J. Caputo, U.S.M.C.(Ret) and his squad in early October 1966. My husband was wounded on October 16, 1966 near the Demilitarized zone.
He often spoke of Mr. Burrows courage and wondered what became of the pictures.
Imagine our surprise when the book came out and my husbands picture is on the cover. That picture was also choosen to represent the Marines during the Viet Nam War. It is the gallery of the new Marine Museum at Quantico, Va.
This book brought back many memories to my husband. If you were in Viet Nam you will appreciate the reality of these pictures.

These photo's are as close as most of you may come to being there. So, if your curious, get this book.

Larry Burrows was many things: an artist, a photojournalist, a man who was clearly the master of his medium. He was a gift to photography. This wonderful book shows his talent in a way that has never been assembled before. It is a powerful work - the best that there is.