(1907 – 2004)
“The world is in motion, and the photographer has to find some way to stop that motion for an instant.”
Carl
Mydans
(1907 – 2004)
“The world is in motion, and the photographer has to find some way to stop
that motion for an instant.”
Carl
Mydans grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, near Boston. After entertaining
thoughts of becoming a boat builder and then a surgeon, Mydans discovered his
true calling while in college at Boston University. It soon became clear that he
was both a talented photographer as well as a writer. He joined LIFE Magazine as
a staff photographer in 1936. When war broke out in Europe, Mydans and his wife,
LIFE researcher Shelley Smith, became the magazine's first husband and wife
photographer-reporter team to be sent overseas.
Mydans'
willingness to plunge into the heart of any international drama, no matter how
fraught with danger, was evident in his literally earth-shaking coverage of the
1948 earthquake in Fukui, Japan. Mydans again covered General MacArthur's forces
during the Korean War. Mydans' soul-wrenching images of the soldiers' plight
earned him U.S. Camera Magazine's Gold Achievement Award.
© by Galerie Stephen Hoffman