*1918
“Photography is more than an art. In photojournalism, it’s knowledge.”
Ralph
Morse
*1918
“Photography is more than an art. In
photojournalism, it’s knowledge.”
Ralph
Morse was an eyewitness to some of the most important events during the 20th
Century. He photographed some of the most widely seen pictures of World War II,
the space program, and sports events. During his thirty years at LIFE Magazine,
Morse covered every type of assignment from science to theatre, and he was the
senior staff photographer at the time it ceased publication. Encyclopedias and
history books abound with his coverage of World War II, the marines at
Guadalcanal, the Doolittle raid in Tokyo, and Patton's drive across France.
Morse was the only civilian photographer covering the surrender of the German
armies to General Eisenhower for the entire world to see.
Assigned
to the space program during its infancy, he spent fifteen years using inventive
photography to explain the astronauts and the space flights to LIFE's readers.
Claiming
to be a specialist in nothing, but a journalist portraying words in pictures,
his thirty awards helped inspire LIFE's ex-managing editor, Georgia Hunt to
quote in a speech, "If LIFE could afford only one photographer, it would
have to be Ralph Morse."
© by Galerie Stephen Hoffman