Dick Swanson

Dick Swanson was born in 1934 and raised in Illinois. He worked at newspapers owned by his uncle and later became a staff photographer at the News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois while studying at the University of Illinois.

Life magazine first published one of his photos, a Miscellany called A Bubble that has Ears, in 1957.{{cite magazine |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=j1YEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA168 |title= Miscellany - A Bubble that has Ears |last= Swanson |first= Dick |magazine= LIFE |date= December 2, 1957 |page= 168 |volume= 43 |number= 23 |issn= 0024-3019}} Swanson temporarily gave up photography to become a commercial pilot.{{cite magazine |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IlYEAAAAMBAJ |title= Teag Gas - A problem for Photographers |last= Hunt |first= George P. |magazine= LIFE |date= April 22, 1966 |page= 3 |volume= 60 |number= 16 |issn= 0024-3019}} Following college, he worked for The Des Moines Register and the Davenport Democrat{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00234/cah-00234.html|title=A Guide to the Dick L. Swanson Photographic Archive, 1959-1994|website=The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin|access-date=September 14, 2014}} and he later signed a contract with New York's Black Star. Swanson worked for the Des Moines Register, where he shot "Man Alone", a photograph of a firefighter on a ladder engulfed in flames, which was recognized by the 1963 Pulitzer jury as "good on-the-spot work".{{cite web|first=Dick|last=Swanson|title=Man Alone|website=POYi Archive, Item #4630 Originally published in the Des Moines Register & Tribune|url=http://archive.poyi.org/items/show/4630|date=1962|access-date=September 13, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lace6Iu4cW4C&q=Swanson|title= Press Photography Awards, 1942-1998|page=xxxvii|isbn=9783598301841|editor=Fischer, Heinz Dietrich |editor2=Fischer, Erika J.|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|date=2000}}

In 1966, Swanson went on assignment for Life to Vietnam, where he met his future wife, Germaine Loc; they married in 1969 in Vietnam and moved to the US in 1971.{{Cite news |last=Burros |first=Marian |date=1994-06-16 |title=GOING HOME WITH: Germaine Loc Swanson; A Voyage So Bitter, So Sweet |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/16/garden/going-home-with-germaine-loc-swanson-a-voyage-so-bitter-so-sweet.html |access-date=2023-07-09 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |date=2018-03-12 |title=A one-man rescue mission in Vietnam War |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43219536 |access-date=2023-07-09}} For his work in Vietnam, he was recognized as among the top military photographers by the project "A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces."{{cite web|url=http://www.daymilitary.com/project_photo_bio.html |title=25 of the best military photographers |website=A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces |publisher=HarperCollins |access-date=September 14, 2014 |archive-date=January 10, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110125156/http://www.daymilitary.com/project_photo_bio.html |url-status=live }} Eventually Swanson became a White House photographer for Life until the magazine ended publication in 1972. Swanson stayed at the White House bureau and worked for such magazines as Fortune, People,{{cite journal|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067145,00.html |title=The Men and Women Behind the Cameras Are Vital to Our Continued Success |journal=People |first=Richard J. |last=Durrell |date=November 29, 1976 |volume=6 |number=22 |access-date=September 14, 2014 |archive-date=September 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915043630/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067145,00.html |url-status=live }} and Time.

In April 1975, Swanson returned to Vietnam to bring his wife's family to the United States during the fall of Saigon.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19750430&id=37pGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3652,5098936|title=Thousands of South Viets join Stream of Refugees|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=The Evening News|location=Newburgh, New York|access-date=September 14, 2014}}{{cite journal|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20065249,00.html|title=A Daring American Rescues His Wife's Family from Vietnam|first=Garry|last=Clifford|date=May 19, 1975|volume=3 |number=19|access-date=September 14, 2014}}{{cite journal |url=http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9904/exit1.htm |date=April 1999 |title=Last Exit from Saigon |journal=The Digital Journalist |first=Dick |last=Swanson |access-date=September 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021135542/http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9904/exit1.htm |archive-date=October 21, 2016 |url-status= }}{{cite journal|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066023,00.html |title=One Man's Refugee Family: How Dick Swanson's Vietnamese Relatives Have Fared |journal=People |date=December 29, 1975 |volume=4 |number=26 |access-date=September 14, 2014 |archive-date=February 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227052344/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066023,00.html |url-status=live }} He took time off from photography in the late 1970s to help his wife open a Washington DC restaurant which was popular in 1979.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19790224&id=yEJHAAAAIBAJ&pg=1516,4093081|title=Where Eating, Eying People draws a crowd|first=Barbara|last=Gamarekian|newspaper=NY Times News Service via The Day|location=New London, Connecticut|date=February 24, 1979|access-date=September 14, 2014}}

Around 1980, Swanson began working for National Geographic, Newsweek and The Washington Post as a freelance photographer. Currently he uses Final Cut Pro for all his work and is a producer of films for the Video Action Fund.

During Swanson's career he received awards from such companies as World Press and NPPA. His work was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and he contributed to the Corcoran Gallery of Art's exhibition entitled "The Indelible Image" in 1986. Some of his work is in a collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. That collection contains over 3,000 photographs and negatives shot from 1959 - 1994.{{cite web|access-date=September 14, 2014|url=http://www.cah.utexas.edu/collections/photojournalists/swanson.php|title=Photojournalism: Dick Swanson|website=The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin}} His work is also in the LIFE Image Collection owned by Getty Images.

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{{commons category|Dick Swanson}}

• [http://www.swansonphotography.com/ Swanson's website]

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Category:Living people

Category:American photographers

Category:1934 births

Category:American commercial aviators