John
Phillips (November
13, 1914, Bouïra, Algeria – August 22, 1996, Manhattan, New York City) was a photographer for Life magazine from the 1930s to the 1950s who was
known for his war photographs.
French
by birth, John Phillips was born in Algeria,
to a Welsh emigre father and an American mother. He spent his early
childhood in an Arab world, before his family moved to France in 1925, first to Paris and then to Nice.
He
was hired by Life in 1936 and his first assignment was
to cover Edward VIII's opening of
Parliament. His pictures were included in the magazine's first issue (on
November 23, 1936) and he went on to cover many events of the Second World War. He photographed
Yugoslav guerrilla leader Draza Mihailovich in June 1946 during his Communist
show trial in Belgrade. He shot the last images of Antoine de Saint Exupery in
1944. Saint Exupery, days before he disappeared, gave Phillips a manuscript, "Letter
to an American " which
Phillips eventually donated to France.
John
Phillips has been described as the "grand-godfather
of photo-journalism, a master of lenses and multiple languages; elegant,
exuberant and chrome-steel effectual, who has recorded in his own peripatetic
way some of the freshest footprints of history."
He
had almost completed his autobiography when he died. The book was published
posthumously by Scalo as "Free Spirit in a Troubled World"
In
2010 the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating WW II
cartoonist Bill Mauldin. The stamp features a portrait of Mauldin taken in
December 1943 by John Phillips.
All
images © John Phillips / J + Am Phillips Foundation
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