Dead People You Should Know: Who Is Eddie Adams?

Photo Credit: WikiMedia.ORG

Eddie Adams was a famous photojournalist and a Nobel prize winner. He is known for his portraits of politicians and of celebrities, as well as his coverage of thirty different wars throughout the course of his career.

Adams was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, on June 12, 1933, and died on September 18, 2004, in New York City, New York, at the age of 71.

As a teenager, Adams developed an interest in photography, and served on his school newspaper’s photography staff, and also worked as a wedding and portrait photographer. After graduating from high school, Adams enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served as a combat photographer during the Korean War.

After leaving the United States Marine Corps, Adams joined the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin as a photographer. From 1958 to 1962, he also managed to become a photographer for the Associated Press.

In 1956, Adams decided to travel to Vietnam and photograph the war there. He remained in Vietnam for about a year, photographing the war as a journalist.

Adams then left Vietnam, but would return once again, and while there in 1968, he took what is likely his most famous photograph, a picture of a Viet Cong soldier being executed by a police chief, which would then earn him the pulitzer prize. This photo also established him as a great photojournalist who knew what kind of photographs to take.

Along with earning the Pulitzer prize, Adams also earned over 500 other awards throughout the course of his career.

In May of 2004, Adams was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Despite this, he continued with his work, and even created a video profile of himself, which was shown during the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon to help raise awareness about the illness.

Throughout his life, Eddie Adams had a great impact on people throughout the world, whether it be through his photographs of wars or through his video about his illness towards the end of his life, and he will certainly be remembered for a long time.

 My name is Mattheau Lee Sharp. I am 16 years old, and an aspiring photojournalist. 

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