David Douglas Duncan and the Korea war: To Hell and Back

Missouri native David Douglas Duncan was born on January 23, 1916, in Kansas City. He lived for much of the 20th century, is still alive in the 21st and is still, decades after it ceased to cover armed conflicts, one of the preeminent history war photographers. However, it is much more than a war photographer, he is just one of the reasons why, in his 98 birthday, celebrate his career and his productive life incomparably.

Duncan is known, primarily, as the photographer of the signing of the Korea war. In the pages of LIFE magazine and elsewhere, his paintings to the brutality House countless Americans who, understandably, with memories of the solo-acabado second world war still fresh in many minds - could have wanted nothing more than erases the carnage were inflicted and endured half a world away in its name.

[More: "life in the Korea war: classic photos of David Douglas Duncan."]

Duncan's photographs of Korea transmitted a scorching, inconvenient truth: namely, that the war is still hell and the men, women and children still die horrible deaths, even when the war in question is called "police action". But Duncan (to the left, in Korea in 1950) knew war long before he made his heart-wrenching images at Chosin reservoir and in the center of Seoul rubble-strewn streets. There, too, was in the second world war, covering the battles - and suffering shrapnel injuries, in the Pacific as a marine combat photographer. He was in Viet Nam, a decade and a half after Korea's South, with Thien and Khe San.

Meanwhile, the previous picture, made in Korea in 1950, is not only one of the best photos made during the 'forgotten war', but is one of the best war pictures ever made by anyone, in any conflict. In his classic book of 1951, this is war!, Duncan wrote about the stunned, resolved itself trying to Navy Captain stable after an attack by North Korean troops, as ammunition ran dangerously low and reinforcements were not in sight: "Ike Fenton, soaked with rain running into small droplets of his bearded Chin"He received the news. His Marines shreds of Baker company had only those rounds in his remaining belts. "If the reds were to launch one attack would have to be suspended with bayonets and rifle butts".

In its direct representation, without blinking the futility, madness, resistance and, sometimes, the simple nobility one witness in the midst of a firefight or a prolonged, bloody campaign, photo of Duncan's captain Ike Fenton has been rarely matched and never failed. Like many of Duncan's Korea pictures, it is indelible.

Speaking to Duncan his paintings of Korea, meanwhile, relies not only by the sharpness of the memories of the man, but by the unexpected and unsolicited statements of a congenitally prone artisan to speak his mind.

"Making me right now, now, look at these photos again," Duncan said LIFE.com, "is that at any time - at any time - any Navy felt that I had to look around to see what they were doing behind it [during the war] South Koreans. The Marines in Korea never afraid of 'friendly fire' or - partners - South Korea from artillery as sometimes did later in Viet Nam, fighting with the South Vietnamese. The Koreans could be trusted."

[More: see TIME.com Korea war coverage.]

In the years after Korea, Duncan had photographed other conflicts around the world, but also showed a sensitive portrait artist and a master of the place. In the past 60 years has published books on topics ranging from his friend, Pablo Picasso, the Kremlin and the Middle East (the world of Ala, 1983). He has published books on the sunflowers of France, Cartier-Bresson and incredibly moving work of 100 pages about his beloved German Shepherd, Thor - a creature possessed what characterized Duncan as an "Olympic serenity".

In 2003, he published his monumental and, at the same time, somehow intimate autobiography in images, Photo Nomad, with photos and mementos of a through seven decades. Every one of his many books is worth searching; But for anyone interested in photojournalism in the 20th century, nomadic photo is essential. The range of photos contains, and shares ideas invariably acute - in the creative process, relationships and more - suggest that the greatest work of Duncan could, in fact, enviably be lifelong, he has led and continues to lead.

Happy birthday, David Douglas Duncan. And thank you.

-Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com
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