Larry Burrows: Vietnam
*Starred Review* Burrows was the only photographer allowed to take the doors off a fighter-bomber so he could lean out to snap some of his most extraordinary images of the Vietnam War. When other photojournalists objected because they were denied the same favor, the Vietnamese army told them, "Mr. Burrows's request was granted not because he is a photographer but because he is an artist." To page slowly and inevitably gravely through Burrows' Vietnam work is to agree wholeheartedly: he was an artist. In Vietnam from 1962 until he disappeared in February 1971 (surely killed when the helicopter he was in crashed, though definitive remains haven't been found), theLifestaff photographer regarded the war as his greatest professional opportunity. His assignment to create photo-essays necessitated staying at the front longer than daily news lensers could; they needed good single images, while he crafted series. Storytelling was his forte, as his younger Vietnam colleague David Halberstam maintains in his awed introduction, and he had a master craftsman's gift for deciding whether a photo would look best in black and white or color. The most powerful work here is in black and white. "One Ride withYankee Papa 13," which follows a 21-year-old helicopter gunner's first encounter with heavy enemy fire, can't be scanned without being overwhelmed by pity and terror; it may be the greatest photo-essay ever made.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved