Larry Burrows
U. S. Advisors, Mekong Delta

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Artist Larry Burrows (British, 1926–1971)British, 1926–1971

CultureBritish

Titles

U. S. Advisors, Mekong Delta

Date1962

PlaceVietnam

MediumDye imbibition print

DimensionsImage: 11 13/16 × 18 1/16 in. (30 × 45.8 cm)
Sheet: 15 3/4 × 20 1/2 in. (40 × 52.1 cm)

Credit LineThe Allan Chasanoff Photographic Collection

Object number91.459

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Allan Chasanoff Photographic Collection

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionSome photographers have longtime relationships with a single magazine, while others work freelance as independent contractors or as part of a photo agency. Larry Burrows was 16 when he began working for Life magazine, and he soon became one of the magazine’s leading photojournalists in conflict zones. Burrows was one of the first photographers working for major magazines to shoot war in color. He spent six months producing a major photo essay on the war in Vietnam that was published in 1963. Fourteen pages long, it was the most extensive coverage of the war to date, and since they were in color, the images were stark and jarring to an American audience used to seeing such violent imagery in black-and-white. Burrows died at the age of 44 when a helicopter he was sharing with three other photojournalists was shot down over Laos.
ProvenanceAllan Chasanoff, New York; given to MFAH, 1991.
Exhibition History“Made for Magazines: Iconic 20th-Century Photographs,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 9–May 4, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

verso lower left a stamp in blue "© TIME Inc. / Reproduction without written / consent is expressly prohibited"
lower right a stamp in blue with pencil addition "LARRY BURROWS: VIETNAM / THE AMERICAN INTERVENTION / PROOF 'A' / PUBLISHED BY / LAURENCE MILLER GALLERY INC."

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