It's been almost two months since I've created a photography thread.
So I would like to pay my tribute to Dirck Halstead. Dirck was a pioneering photojournalist, best known for his work for Time magazine, UPI, and Life magazine.
Halstead covered significant world events throughout the late 20th century including the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon in 1975, five presidential administrations, President Richard Nixon’s trip to China, and the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Reflecting on his career, Halstead said, "I have never thought of myself as a great photographer. That’s beside the point. What I am is a storyteller. I have always felt that [my career] isn’t about what I saw. It is about how I fulfilled my responsibility to reporting history."
Halstead was one of the great news photographers of his generation, and his body of work will be a source of vital historical information far into the future.
Photo: Whitney Houston photographed by Dirck Halstead for TIME Magazine (1987)
The photographer was known for his ironed blue jeans and brown Gucci loafers.
Photo: Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, Paul Sorvino, and Joe Pesci on the set of the movie Goodfellas, 1990. © Dirck Halstead
Halstead’s images of the fall of Saigon represent some of the most significant images taken during the Vietnam War.
He later noted: “I was in Vietnam covering the first Marines landing in 1965, and then the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. That constitutes an epic in mind.”
A Sioux activist triumphantly brandishes his AK-47 after repelling FBI agents on the Wounded Knee reservation in South Dakota, 1977.
Later that day, low-level flights by Air Force fighter jets forced the Sioux protesters to abandon their positions.
© Dirck Halstead
President Nixon tries to master the art of eating with chopsticks at a banquet with Premier Zhou En Lai in Beijing’s Great Hall of The People during his historic visit to China, 1972. © Dirck Halstead
LSD advocate Timothy Leary, the author of “Turn on, Tune in, and Drop out,” delivers his message at Ohio State University, 1969. © Dirck Halstead
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