David Douglas Duncan
Encyclopedia
David Douglas Duncan is an American photojournalist and among the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He is best known for his dramatic combat photographs.
, where his childhood was marked with interest in the outdoors, which helped him obtain the rank of Eagle Scout
in the Boy Scouts
at a relatively young age. A lantern-slide presentation by big-game hunter and physician Richard L. Sutton, Sr., M.D. at Duncan's elementary school in Kansas City inspired an early interest in photography and world travel. Duncan briefly attended the University of Arizona
, where he studied archaeology
. While in Tucson, he inadvertently photographed John Dillinger
trying to get into a hotel. Duncan eventually continued his education at the University of Miami
, where he graduated in 1938, having studied zoology
and Spanish
. It was in Miami that his interest in photojournalism began in earnest. He worked as picture editor and photographer of the university paper.
. His photos included one of a hotel guest who made repeated attempts to go back into the burning building for his suitcase. That photo proved to be newsworthy when the guest turned out to have been notorious bank robber John Dillinger
and the suitcase to have contained the proceeds of a bank robbery in which he had shot a police officer. Unfortunately, after turning the film over to the Tucson Citizen, the film was lost forever, and the photos never printed.
After college, Duncan began to free lance
, selling his work to journals such as The Kansas City Star
, Life
and the National Geographic Magazine
. After Pearl Harbor Duncan joined the Marine Corps
, earned an officer's commission, and became a combat photographer. After brief postings in California and Hawaii, he was sent to the South Pacific on assignment when the United States entered World War II
. Though combat photographers are often close to the action, they rarely fight. However, in a brief engagement at Bougainville Island
, Duncan found himself fighting against the Japanese. Duncan also covered the battle of Okinawa
. Duncan would be on board the USS Missouri
during the Japanese surrender.
His war time photographs were so impressive that, after the war, he was hired by Life to join their staff upon the urging of J.R. Eyerman, Lifes chief photographer. During his time with Life he covered many events including the end of the British Raj in India
and conflicts in Turkey
, Eastern Europe
, Africa
and the Middle East
.
Perhaps his most famous photographs were taken during the Korean War
. He compiled many of his photos into a book called This Is War! (1951), with the proceeds going to widows and children of Marines who had been killed in the conflict. Duncan is considered to be the most prominent combat photographer of the Korean War.
In the Vietnam War
, Duncan would eventually compile two additional books I Protest! (1968) and War Without Heroes (1970). Here, Duncan stepped out of his role as a neutral photographer and challenged how the US government was handling the war.
Aside from his combat photographs, Duncan is also known for his photographs of Pablo Picasso
to whom he had been introduced by fellow photographer Robert Capa
. Eventually, he was to publish seven books of photographs of Picasso. Duncan now lives in Mougins
, France
, a suburb of Cannes
. This is also where Picasso spent his last 12 years.
Greatly assisting Nippon Kogaku (Nikon) during their early years, in 1965 Duncan was presented with the 200,00th Nikon F
built in recognition for his use and popularization of their camera.
In 1966 he published Yankee Nomad a visual autobiography that collected representative photographs from throughout his career. In 2003 this was revised and published under the title of Photo Nomad.
Duncan traveled extensively in the Middle East, having been stationed there for 10 years as a Life photographer after World War Two. He later published The World of Allah in 1982
Childhood and Education
Duncan was born in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, where his childhood was marked with interest in the outdoors, which helped him obtain the rank of Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
in the Boy Scouts
Scouting in Missouri
Scouting in Missouri has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.-Early history :According to William D...
at a relatively young age. A lantern-slide presentation by big-game hunter and physician Richard L. Sutton, Sr., M.D. at Duncan's elementary school in Kansas City inspired an early interest in photography and world travel. Duncan briefly attended the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, where he studied archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. While in Tucson, he inadvertently photographed John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
trying to get into a hotel. Duncan eventually continued his education at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, where he graduated in 1938, having studied zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. It was in Miami that his interest in photojournalism began in earnest. He worked as picture editor and photographer of the university paper.
Career
His career as a photojournalist had its origin when he took photographs of a hotel fire in Tucson, Arizona where he was then studying archaeology at the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. His photos included one of a hotel guest who made repeated attempts to go back into the burning building for his suitcase. That photo proved to be newsworthy when the guest turned out to have been notorious bank robber John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
and the suitcase to have contained the proceeds of a bank robbery in which he had shot a police officer. Unfortunately, after turning the film over to the Tucson Citizen, the film was lost forever, and the photos never printed.
After college, Duncan began to free lance
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
, selling his work to journals such as The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
and the National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
. After Pearl Harbor Duncan joined the Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, earned an officer's commission, and became a combat photographer. After brief postings in California and Hawaii, he was sent to the South Pacific on assignment when the United States entered World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Though combat photographers are often close to the action, they rarely fight. However, in a brief engagement at Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
, Duncan found himself fighting against the Japanese. Duncan also covered the battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
. Duncan would be on board the USS Missouri
USS Missouri (BB-63)
|USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship, and was the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri...
during the Japanese surrender.
His war time photographs were so impressive that, after the war, he was hired by Life to join their staff upon the urging of J.R. Eyerman, Lifes chief photographer. During his time with Life he covered many events including the end of the British Raj in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and conflicts in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Perhaps his most famous photographs were taken during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He compiled many of his photos into a book called This Is War! (1951), with the proceeds going to widows and children of Marines who had been killed in the conflict. Duncan is considered to be the most prominent combat photographer of the Korean War.
In the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Duncan would eventually compile two additional books I Protest! (1968) and War Without Heroes (1970). Here, Duncan stepped out of his role as a neutral photographer and challenged how the US government was handling the war.
Aside from his combat photographs, Duncan is also known for his photographs of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
to whom he had been introduced by fellow photographer Robert Capa
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian combat photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War...
. Eventually, he was to publish seven books of photographs of Picasso. Duncan now lives in Mougins
Mougins
Mougins is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It is located on the heights of Cannes, in the district of Grasse. Mougins is a 15-minute drive from Cannes. The village is surrounded by forests, such as the Valmasque forest...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, a suburb of Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
. This is also where Picasso spent his last 12 years.
Greatly assisting Nippon Kogaku (Nikon) during their early years, in 1965 Duncan was presented with the 200,00th Nikon F
Nikon F
The Nikon F camera, introduced in 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although most of its concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was the first camera to combine them all in one camera. It was produced until October 1973 and was...
built in recognition for his use and popularization of their camera.
In 1966 he published Yankee Nomad a visual autobiography that collected representative photographs from throughout his career. In 2003 this was revised and published under the title of Photo Nomad.
Duncan traveled extensively in the Middle East, having been stationed there for 10 years as a Life photographer after World War Two. He later published The World of Allah in 1982