Vietnam

by Larry Burrow

Larry Burrows's photograph of the wounded soldiers reaching out in the mud, published in full colour by Life magazine shortly after his death in 1971, was one of the greatest photographs of the Vietnam War and it remains imprinted on our collective memories. Ralph Edwards, the managing editor of Life, called Burrows 'the single bravest and most dedicated photographer I know of'.

Burrows's photographs were intensely compassionate and terrifying beautiful. Not only was he a technical virtuoso, but he transcended the conventions of photojournalism and created iconic art. His work was immensely influential in depicting the realities of war for the American people - a fact that did not pass unnoticed by the White House.

This book follows Burrows as the course of the war unfolds. He had photographed both heroic events and the mundane routines of military life. He witnessed the coups in Saigon in 1963 and 1964, and the subsequent arrival of MacNamara. He watched the policy of US advisors escalate into full-blown war. He was fascinated by the collision between the machinery of war and the humanity of the common soldier. In his work the spectacle of the air war is balanced by images of the wounded and the dead. The book is a monument to his work, and in turn it is a monument to all those who were killed.

Genres: Photography, History, War, Military Fiction, Journalism, Nonfiction, Memoir

Hardcover

First published October 22, 2002

Reviews

[Nik]

Larry Burrows personified photojournalism. His images brought the Vietnam conflict home to me as a 7 year old kid in '72. They often intriqued and shocked me. They were brutal and poignant. Burrows covered the war in Vietnam from 1962 until his death in 1971 when the helicopter he was in was shot down over Laos. Also killed along with him were fellow photojournalists Henri Huet, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto. This book is Vietnam through his camera lens, I highly recommend it.

[Wendy Feltham]

After finishing Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, I was eager to see images of the Vietnam War. To my surprise, my local public library had two perfect books-- Larry Burrows's Vietnam and Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side. Another Vietnam shows the images by North Vietnamese combat photographers. And Larry Burrows was a brilliant British photographer who captured the Vietnam War for ten years for Life magazine. Together these two books provide exceptional historical documentation of this devastating war. Larry Burrows's book and each of the eleven chapters is introduced by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Halberstam with his exquisite prose. The faces of the teenage American marines and the full color images of combat and children are shocking and memorable. They also seem well designed to illustrate the novel Matterhorn.

[Brian]

Burrows photographs are emotionally powerful, as is his story. My only quibble with the book is the editors chose to compile captions for the photos in an appendix at the end of the book instead of including them with the photographs, making the process of gaining context clunky.

[Jenn]

I obviously didn't read the book summary before putting this on hold, because I was not expecting to see such a gigantic book waiting for me. This is a coffee-table photography book, not a curl-up-in-bed-with book. I was looking for a firsthand account of the Vietnam War, and I got it, just not in the form I was expecting. These really are stunning images in a tragic beauty kind of way. It was interesting to learn a bit about Larry Burrows himself and his passionate dedication to his work. This guy photographed Vietnam for 9 years, hanging out of helicopters to get the shots he wanted, wading through chest deep water holding 5 cameras above his head, and eventually being killed when the helicopter he was riding in was shot down.

I still need to go back and read some of the captions I skipped, but you do get quite a story just by looking through the pictures.

[Susan]

This is a powerful book, showing photos taken by Larry Burrows with explanation written by David Halberstam. I saw some of Larry Burrow's photos at an exhibit in Vietnam and was interested enough to check this book out of the library. The pictures are amazing; what he was able to do to tell the story for Life magazine was incredible. He hung out of choppers, shot live action photos in the midst of battles. For anyone who is interested in Vietnam, this is worth a couple of hours of your time.

[Mason]

I think that this book was relay good. In the begging I think it was hard to get in to but after a while I go the jist of it. I would encourage kids to read this book. It gives you the jist of war. I like how all 4 friends stuck together and looked out for each other even though they were in different branches of the military.

[Ayne Ray]

There are numerous powerful and beautifully composed photographic essays on war and human rights abuses, and Burrows one of the best artists in the field. This collection of heartrending pictures is an example of photojournalism at its finest and most compelling.

[Schwa51]

Larry Burrows took some amazing photographs of the conflict in Vietnam and this book is a must for those interested in the war. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely make it into my permanent collection when I have the chance.

[Seth]

Photographs of Vietnam War by Larry Burrows who was shot down in a helicopter over Cambodia in 1967(?). More artistic than journalistic, but really good in any case.

[Ted Luster]

Great pictorial history of the Vietnam CONFLICT
from 1963 to 1971 (When I left).

[Jeremy Bunting]

This book very accurately describes the horrors of the Vietnam war. The images in this book are a horrifyingly accurate description of what went on during the Vietnam war.