We've lost another of the Great Ones

[Jeff Donald]

Eddie Adams passed away yesterday after a long bout with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). He is perhaps best known for this picture of an execution of a Viet Cong prisoner.

[Steven Digges]

Jeff, thank you for posting that link. I wish I would have had that article with me a couple of weeks ago when I was giving a lecture to a group of high school students producing a school newspaper. I told them that a camera is never more powerful than when it is used for photo journalism. And to use that power responsibly is part of a journalist job. One of the kids produced that days New York Times. On the cover was a shot of a dead little girl hanging out of the window of a bus that had been bombed in Israel. The kids were truly perplexed; they did not understand why the picture was there. I asked them if prior to seeing the picture any of them knew innocent children were dying in Israel, they did not know, now they do. It led to a wonderful discussion on the power of the photograph and what it means to be a journalist.

In the last hundred years there has been photographs that have changed the world, many for the better. I have great respect for the photographers who put themselves in harms way and provide information about world events, as I sit here in suburban utopia. As the article states, Edie Adams photograph of the execution in Saigon serves as an example of how a photograph taken with the most responsible of intentions can be interpreted in many ways. Edie Adams created one of histories most powerful images, how interesting that he died feeling it was often misinterpreted. I have to wonder if that is why he devoted so much of his time and effort in recent years rallying great photographers and editors to donate their time to educating our future photo journalists through his foundation. He was a great photographer and a great human being.

Steve