Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The brilliant photos by the first American female war photographer killed in action
Trigger warning: some are gruesome.
Leica fans will enjoy this.
Hat tip, the DCRTV.com mailbag
The brilliant photos of the first American female war photographer killed in action
Writer May-Ying Lam December 3
@mayyin9
U.S. helicopters fly over rice fields in Vietnam in 1961. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
On Dec. 6, 1956, after midnight, three figures methodically traversed a frost-encrusted field in Austria. Guided by a compass and saddled with a million dollars’ worth of penicillin, they were on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to Hungarian refugees.
But the figure in the middle — at a diminutive 5 feet tall — had an additional purpose. It was the reason why she had stowed a Minox camera under her coat and wool shirt, stuck to her flesh by four bandages. The woman was Dickey Chapelle, a female photojournalist on assignment for Life magazine. Moments later the man in front of her muttered, “I’m lost,” and an enemy flare blew out the Big Dipper above. A machine gun and three rifles surrounded them, capturing her and one of her companions.
Chapelle wound up in the custody of the Hungarian secret police and was imprisoned mostly in solitary for two months. Though the incident jolted her, being on the front lines was in her blood. That same year she returned to work, photographing Algerian rebels and, the year after that, Fidel Castro.
....
A lone Marine nine days after D-Day at Iwo Jima in February 1945. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
....
A serviceman is interred in the military cemetery on Guam in 1945. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
....
On her final trip to Vietnam, Chapelle was with a patrol when a Marine triggered a tripwire that sent shrapnel flying. A fragment sliced her carotid artery. ... In a role reversal, the woman behind the camera became the photograph. Associated Press photographer Henri Huet, who was also there, captured Chaplain John McNamara as he signed the cross over her curled body. Her unmistakable pearl earring nestled in her earlobe. Her bush hat was flung in the grass. Marines — some closer than others, perhaps unsure of whether she would want privacy or comfort — witnessed her final moment. But surely they knew one thing: that she died doing what she was born to do.
A retrospective of Dickey Chapelle’s work is featured in “Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: Photographs by the First American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action.” To see more photos from the Wisconsin Historical Images collection, click here.
Writer May-Ying Lam December 3
@mayyin9
U.S. helicopters fly over rice fields in Vietnam in 1961. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
On Dec. 6, 1956, after midnight, three figures methodically traversed a frost-encrusted field in Austria. Guided by a compass and saddled with a million dollars’ worth of penicillin, they were on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to Hungarian refugees.
But the figure in the middle — at a diminutive 5 feet tall — had an additional purpose. It was the reason why she had stowed a Minox camera under her coat and wool shirt, stuck to her flesh by four bandages. The woman was Dickey Chapelle, a female photojournalist on assignment for Life magazine. Moments later the man in front of her muttered, “I’m lost,” and an enemy flare blew out the Big Dipper above. A machine gun and three rifles surrounded them, capturing her and one of her companions.
Chapelle wound up in the custody of the Hungarian secret police and was imprisoned mostly in solitary for two months. Though the incident jolted her, being on the front lines was in her blood. That same year she returned to work, photographing Algerian rebels and, the year after that, Fidel Castro.
....
A lone Marine nine days after D-Day at Iwo Jima in February 1945. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
....
A serviceman is interred in the military cemetery on Guam in 1945. (Dickey Chapelle/Wisconsin Historical Images)
....
On her final trip to Vietnam, Chapelle was with a patrol when a Marine triggered a tripwire that sent shrapnel flying. A fragment sliced her carotid artery. ... In a role reversal, the woman behind the camera became the photograph. Associated Press photographer Henri Huet, who was also there, captured Chaplain John McNamara as he signed the cross over her curled body. Her unmistakable pearl earring nestled in her earlobe. Her bush hat was flung in the grass. Marines — some closer than others, perhaps unsure of whether she would want privacy or comfort — witnessed her final moment. But surely they knew one thing: that she died doing what she was born to do.
A retrospective of Dickey Chapelle’s work is featured in “Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: Photographs by the First American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action.” To see more photos from the Wisconsin Historical Images collection, click here.
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
They are so good.
Somehow, the B&W makes them more real, more down to earth.
Indeed, she did give her all.......including her life.
