Eddie Addams image of a Vietcong guerilla being executed on the streets of Saigon had a extremely strong impact on my desire to make photographs. For the first time in my life I felt that documentary/journalistic photographs could cause change within our society. This photograph helped the anti war movement and helped stopped the Vietnam War saving thousands possibly hundreds of thousands of lives in the process. This photograph demonstrated the power of photography.
Mr. Adams passed away a while back here is a little history of him and his famous pulitzer prize winning photograph.
Eddie Adams, photo-journalist dies aged 71
Dai Hunter, Sep 22, 2004; 06:03 a.m.
Eddie Adams covered 13 wars from Vietnam to the Gulf. He earned 500 awards for his work including the Robert Capa Award and three George Polk Memorial Awards. Yet Adams took no joy in the one Pulitzer Prize winning photo that over-shadowed his entire career.
Shot on Feb 1, 1968, two days into the Tet offensive, Adams captured on film national police chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner in the streets of Saigon. The iconic image earned Adams the Pulitzer and earned Loan the enduring hatred of both the Vietnamese and the Americans.
Eddie Adams, b1933 d2004 RIP
Note: Main photo here is credited AP
