- Carl Mydans
Carl Mydans (
May 20 ,1907 –August 16 ,2004 ) was an Americanphotographer who worked for theFarm Security Administration and "Life" magazine.Mydans became devoted to photography while in college at
Boston University . While working on the Boston University News as an undergraduate, his first reporting jobs were for "The Boston Globe" and the "Boston Herald". After college, he went to New York as a writer for "American Banker" and then in 1935 to Washington to join a group of photographers in the Farm Security Administration.In 1936, he joined "Life" as one of its earliest staff photographers (
Alfred Eisenstaedt ,Margaret Bourke-White ,Thomas McAvoy andPeter Stackpole were the original staff photographers) and a pioneeringphotojournalist .Mydans recorded photographic images of life and death throughout
Europe andAsia duringWorld War II . In 1941, the photographer and his wife Shelley, herself a journalist, were captured by the invading Japanese forces in thePhilippines , held for nearly a year inManila , then for another year inShanghai ,China , before they were released as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange.Mydans was sent back to war in Europe for pivotal battles in Italy and France. By 1944, Mydans was back in the Philippines to cover MacArthur's landing, where he took some of his most famous pictures.
Some of Mydans's more famous pictures include: the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in 1945; angry French citizens shaving the heads of women accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation in 1944; a roomful of excited royal youngsters and their staid older relatives in 1954; and a 1950 portrait of
Douglas MacArthur smoking a pipe.References
*
Mark Edward Harris . "Carl Mydans: A life goes to war". In: Camera & Darkroom (ed.), Volume 16 Number 6 (June 1994). Beverly Hills, CA. pp. 22-31.External links
* [http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/mydans/mydans.html Carl Mydans Photographic Portfolio]
* [http://www.gallerym.com/artist.cfm?ID=30 More photos by Carl Mydans]
* [http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0409/halstead.html Carl Mydans Background and Photos]
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