Larry Burrows

Larry Burrows (1926–1971) was a British photojournalist whose courageous, human‑centered images defined Life magazine’s coverage of the Vietnam War. Born in London, he started at age sixteen as a tea boy in Life’s London bureau during World War II, where he absorbed the craft from leading war photographers. He quickly progressed to shooting assignments, capturing figures such as Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway with striking clarity.

In 1962 Burrows was assigned to Vietnam, initiating nine years of front‑line coverage that revealed the conflict’s personal toll. Unlike many of his peers, he embraced color film—its vivid immediacy heightening the emotional impact of his photographs. His celebrated essays—such as One Ride with Yankee Papa 13 and Reaching Out, which chronicled a medic’s life-and-death efforts—combined precise composition with profound empathy, earning him three Robert Capa Awards for “exceptional courage and enterprise.”

Burrows’s work went beyond battlefield drama to show soldiers’ anxieties, civilians’ suffering, and moments of compassion amid chaos. Tragically, on February 10, 1971, while covering the war’s expansion into Laos, Burrows and four other journalists were killed when their helicopter was shot down. His legacy endures in the visceral power of his images, which remain among the most memorable and affecting records of 20th‑century photojournalism.