Henry Frank Leslie Burrows (29 May 1926 – 10 February 1971), known as Larry Burrows, was an English photojournalist. He spent 9 years covering the Vietnam War.


Burrows died with fellow photojournalists Henri Huet (Associated Press), Kent Potter (United Press International) and Keisaburo Shimamoto (freelancer with Newsweek), when their helicopter was shot down over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos[8] as the group covered Operation Lam Son 719.

Following his death the Managing Editor of Life, Ralph Graves, said of Burrows -

I do not think it is demeaning to any other photographer in the world for me to say that Larry Burrows was the single bravest and most dedicated war photographer I know of.

— Ralph Graves
Of his work, Burrows himself said, "I cannot afford the luxury of thinking about what could happen to me".

In 1985, the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York published a portfolio of Burrows' prints, with the assistance of his son Russell Burrows. In 2002, Burrows' posthumous book Vietnam was awarded the Prix Nadar award.

In 2008 the remains of Burrows and fellow photographers Huet, Potter and Shimamoto were honoured and interred at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Journalist David Halberstam paid tribute to Burrows in the 1997 book Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina -

I must mention Larry Burrows in particular. To us younger men who had not yet earned reputations, he was a sainted figure. He was a truly beautiful man, modest, graceful, a star who never behaved like one. He was generous to all, a man who gave lessons to his colleagues not just on how to take photographs but, more important, on how to behave like a human being, how to be both colleague and mentor. Our experience of the star system in photography was, until we met him, not necessarily a happy one; all too often talent and ego seemed to come together in equal amounts. We were touched by Larry: How could someone so talented be so graceful?

— David Halberstam, Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina
In December 2019, the Newseum was closed due to financial difficulties and the remains of Burrows, Huet, Potter and Shimamoto were disinterred. Their remains are currently stored at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lab at Offutt Air Force Base awaiting a permanent burial place.

In 2021, Burrows was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

Source Wikipedia, last update 2023.02.25.