Dickey Chapelle
in 1958 making a photograph while covering a Marine Corps operation on the
shore of Lake Michigan, Milwaukee, with one of the 500 black Leica M2 made that
year and coupled to a 7 elements in 6 groups black Summicron-M 5 cm f/2 Rigid.
On top of the camera is a Leica Meter MR chrome inserted in the accessory shoe.
Picture made by Marine Master Sgt. Lew Lowery.
© Wisconsin Historical Images
By José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Throughout a 23 year
career between 1942 and 1965, Dickey Chapelle became an internationally
acclaimed war photographer, having covered a number of assignments in which she
proved her mettle and talent once and again, covering such highly dangerous
battles and conflicts as Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945), Algeria War and others,
particularly the Vietnam War (in which she excelled as a combat correspondent
between 1961 and November 4, 1965 when she was killed by the shrapnel of a Viet
Cong tripwire booby-trap made up by a mortar shell and a hand grenade attached
to its top, while she was embedded with a US marine platoon during the second
day of Operation Black Ferret, 16 km south of the village of Chu Lai, Quang
Ngai Province in South Vietnam), getting great pictures and winning the respect
and accolades of every US marine with whom she went during operations and front
line battles, exactly in the same conditions as them.
Dickey Chapelle
receiving the coveted Georg Polk Award of the Overseas Press Club of America in
April 1962 from William Lawrence of the New York Times at the Waldorf Astoria
Hotel, for her outstanding coverage of the Vietnam War, making her the first
woman to receive it.
© Wisconsin Historical Images
A HIGHLY INSTINCTIVE AND
PASSIONATE PHOTOGRAPHER
Dickey Chapelle´s way of
getting pictures had a straightforward keynote strongly rooted in the halcyon
days of photojournalism: to be at the right place at the adequate instant,
approaching as much as possible to subjects, striving upon being unnoticed and
pressing the shutter release button of her cameras as accurately as possible to
capture defining moments.
It was a practical approach in which photographic cameras and lenses were chosen by her according to her professional needs, in which maximum feasible proximity to the core of action was top priority.
Two doctors with
a wounded marine in an Okinawa field hospital in 1945, made with a Leica IIIc
camera coupled to a Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/3.5 lens.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / ©
Wisconsin Historical Images
In addition, she steadily
gained leverage of her boundless courage, her remarkable speed of movements, an
uncommon eye for dramatic pictures, an innate sense of anticipation, an
uncommon nose to discern the environments in which she could make good stories,
and above all, the fulfillment of the greatest goal : to get the picture,
irrespective of technical considerations, without forgetting the two statement
she always repeated to her working colleagues:
- ´ The main thing you
have to always remember about covering combat is that you´ve got to survive,
get the story and the pictures out to the world.
- ´ The picture is your
reason for being. If you can´t prove it happened with a picture, it didn´t
happen ´.
And to properly cope with
this kind of war photojournalism made from exceedingly short distances, the
best photographic tool is a Leica M rangefinder camera.
Dickey Chapelle´s favorite one was the Leica M2, which she mostly used coupled to 50 mm and 35
mm lenses.
Dickey
Chapelle´s hands holding a black Leica M2 during her coverage in 1958 of a
Marine Corps operation beside the Lake Michigan (Milwaukee). The camera is
coupled to a 7 elements in 6 groups Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Rigid. A Leica Meter
MR Chrome made by Metrawatt A.G. Nürnberg is inserted in the accessory shoe.
This precision light exposure featured a sensitive cadmium sulfide photo
resistor, designed to couple the shutter speed dial of the camera and getting
remarkable accuracy on making possible to see the important subject area
through the 90 mm frame of the viewfinder.
A PASSIONATE RELATIONSHIP WITH 24 X 36 MM
FORMAT LEICA RANGEFINDER CAMERAS AND LENSES UNTIL HER DEATH
From the very beginning of
her amazing career as a combat photojournalist in 1942
American
soldiers strain to push a 75 mm artillery piece into position in Panama in 1942
during a drill. Dickey Chapelle begins showing her great potential as a combat
photographer in this picture in which she has masterfully captured the effort
of the four soldiers moving the Pack Howitzer M1, using her Leica IIIc coupled
to a Leitz Summaron 35 mm f/3.5 to create a great composition in symbiosis with
the smart choice of a slow shutter speed to render the lower feet, ankles and
boots of the three G.I nearest to the camera blurred, so conveying a feeling of
motion. One year and a half has elapsed since her marriage in October 1940 with
Tony Chapelle (a highly experienced photographer since the First World War with
the US Navy and subsequently in a number of significant firms, including the
creation of publicity images for TWA American Airlines) and his photography
lessons imparted to Dickey start to pay off.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / ©
Wisconsin Historical Images
in Panama covering US
forces in an assignment for Look magazine,
Two American soldiers advancing through the
waters of Tuira river, province of Darién, in the east of Panama, in 1942.
Dickey Chapelle, who is behind the G.Is, also advancing through the river, has
raised her arms as much as she has been able, holding her Leica IIIc between
her hands and doing a vertical picture of the three soldiers, to highlight
their effort striving upon keeping balance raising their 45 ACP caliber
Thompson M1928A1 submachine guns at the height of their heads.
Dickey Chapelle felt that
24 x 36 mm format Leica rangefinders cameras were the best photographic tools
for her trade,
Dickey Chapelle
in 1944. She is wearing a Leica IIIc coupled to a 7 elements in 5 groups Ernst
Leitz Wetzlar Summarex 8.5 cm f/1.5 black lens.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / ©
Wisconsin Historical Images
and she started a lifelong
romance with Leitz cameras and lenses, opting for a screwmount Leica IIIC and
Elmar 5 cm f/3.5 lens with which she covered Iwo Jima and Okinawa battles in
1944 during the Second World War.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle /
© Wisconsin Historical Images
Dickey Chapelle in 1955
with her Leica IIIc getting pictures of US marines at the Camp Pendleton USMC
recruit base in Southern California, approximately 38 miles from San Diego,
where she spent two months.
Selective reframing of the
picture showing Dickey Chapelle´s Leica IIIc and that it is coupled to a 6
elements in 4 groups Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 75 mm f/1.5 in LTM39 mount, an
extraordinary lens for portraits, yielding a superb bokeh.
Hungarian
refugees crossing a frozen field into Austria, after having walked ten miles,
near the village of Andau, fleeing from the Soviet Invasion of their country in
1956. Dickey Chapelle risked her life different times in this area, guarded by
Soviet soldiers and members of the Hungarian secret police, until she was
finally captured and sent to a prison in Budapest, where she was for five
weeks. This image appeared in Life magazine, along with some more made by her
in Hungary that year. Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin Historical Images
She also covered with that
Leica IIIc the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against Soviet invasion (getting
pictures of Hungarian refugees crossing the border between Hungary and
Austria), and one year later, in 1957, she spent thirty-two days with the
guerrilla fighters of the Algerian Army of Liberation in mountains near Sahara
desert.
Photo : Dickey Chapelle /
Wisconsin Historical Images
Great portrait of an
Algerian fighter of the FLN made by Dickey Chapelle inside a cave of the
Algerian zone of Atlas Mountains in 1957 with her Leica IIIc and a Leitz Elmar
50 mm f/3.5 lens, probably at f/4 and a very slow shutter speed, which has
resulted in the blurred moving left hand of the man. The great war
photojournalist from Milwaukee has gone utterly unnoticed while surprising him
engrossed in his thoughts. In addition, the little big woman, always paying
heed to every detail, has taken advantage of the great quality of light coming
from the right and only illuminating the front area of his countenance and turban, along with most of his lower apparel.
Dickey Chapelle
in early fifties with her Leica IIIc coupled to a Nikkor-Q Auto 135 mm f/4 in
LTM39 mount.
© Wisconsin Historical Images
Dickey Chapelle
posing with two Marine Corps photographers in late fifties. She is wearing her
Leica IIIc coupled to a 7 elements in 4 groups Leitz Summitar 5 cm f/2 and has
attached two cans for 35 mm films to her jacket, while another film can is
visible on the attire of the photographer on her left.
© Wisconsin Historical
Society
Subsequently, she used a
Leica IIIG camera during her coverage for Reader´s Digest of the Cuban
Revolution in 1958 and then in Laos. She would go on using this camera for some
reportages during 1959 and first half of sixties, taking advantage of its exceedingly
small size and low weight.
Dickey Chapelle
posing with some Cuban revolutionary soldiers during her coverage of the
conflict in the Caribbean island in 1958. She is wearing a LTM39 Leica IIIG
rangefinder camera.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin Historical Images
Selective reframing of the
picture showing the Leica IIIG camera used by Dickey Chapelle in Cuba. It
appears coupled to a Leitz Summaron 35 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens with IROOA shade
attached.
Anyway, from 1958 onward she would mostly use a Leica M2 black coupled to a 7 elements in 6 groups
chrome Leitz Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR Type 2 and above all a chrome Leica M2 with a
8 elements in 6 groups Leitz Canada Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 1st version wideangle
lens, although she also used
Dickey Chapelle
on board of a gunboat of the South Vietnamese Arm sailing across the waters of Mekong
River Delta in the Tay Nam Bo South Western Region of Vietnam, while fulfilling
her famous assignment " Water War in Vietnam " for National
Geographic magazine. She is holding between her hands a Leica M2 coupled to a
Leitz Elmarit 90 mm f/2.8, while hanging beside her right arm is a Nikonos I
camera attached to a Nikkor W 35 mm f/2.5 wideangle lens. This was a very
dangerous photographic mission, since Viet Cong soldiers hidden in the jungles
on both shores of the river often opened fire against the gunboats with machine
guns and AK-47 assault rifles, and there were also VC snipers shooting with
7.62 x 54 mm caliber Mosin Nagant M44 rifles and 7.62 x 39 mm caliber SKS semi
automatic carbines, which brought about oodles of fidgets. It all in the midst
of appalling climatic conditions, with temperatures of 37º C and thermal
feeling of around 55º C because of the hugely high humidity levels.
© Wisconsin
Historical Society
a 5 elements in 3 groups
and 12 blade Leitz Elmarit 90 mm f/2.8 directly coupled,
Legendary picture
of Dickey Chapelle wearing camouflage uniform, Australian bush hat,
black-rimmed glasses and her famous pearl earrings, made in 1964, when she was
doing her reportage titled " Water War in Vietnam " for National
Geographic magazine, covering the operations of South Vietnamese gunboats
through Mekong river delta. Along with her cameras and lenses, she has attached
a total of six film cans to her uniform.
© Wisconsin Historical Society
and a 4 elements in 4
groups Leitz Canada Telyt-V 200 mm f/4 with built-in extendable lens hood
connected to her Leica M2 cameras through a Visoflex II reflex housing with
bayonet mount.
Selective reframing of the
image showing more detail of Dickey Chapelle´s photographic gear. Along with
the aforementioned Leitz Canada Telyt-V 200 mm f/4 with built-in extendable
lens hood connected to a Leica M2 camera through a Visoflex II reflex housing
with bayonet mount, we can see another superb camera : a Nikonos I underwater
camera from 1963, which could dive as deep as 50 meters and withstand
temperatures as low as -20º C, and is coupled to an extraordinary 6 elements in
4 groups Nikkor W 35 mm f/2.5 amphibious wideangle lens (able to get pictures
above and below water) inspired by the optical formula of the W-Nikkor. C 3.5
cm f/2.5 for Nippon Kogaku rangefinder cameras, and delivering such a high
image quality that it was recently adapted to Leica M mount by the Japanese
brand MS Optics.
A TRUE LEGEND IN THE
HISTORY OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
Dickey Chapelle was a
unique woman, featuring tremendous resolve, tenacity, craving for adventure,
boundless courage, unswerving lifetime commitment in body and soul to become a
good foreign correspondent, an irrepressible desire to know as many countries
as possible and meet new and interesting people, an impressive unselfish spirit
which took both her and her husband Tony Chapelle (an experienced photographer
knowing every side of the trade and featuring great darkroom knowledge, to such
an extent that in December of 1947, while working for the American Friends
Service Committee in Europe, was able to develop four hundred negatives of 24 x
36 mm format Kodak Super-XX Safety film rolls in Gdynia, Poland, with
temperatures below zero, inside an old farmhouse, using tin bathtubs for the
solutions, which were heated on a wood stove by Dickey) travelling all over the
world for six years documenting the efforts made by relief agencies to
alleviate suffering in countries like India, Iran, Iraq and others.
And all those qualities
were instrumental in her development as a photographer, a profession she loved
to her utmost, in addition to being a great writer, so she also made the texts
of her reportages. Not in vain Dickey Chapelle often defined herself as an
independent writer photographer on overseas assignments.
She visited many countries
as a top-notch foreign correspondent (Panamá, Dominican Republic, Japan,
Algeria, Lebanon, Laos, Cuba, Vietnam and many others).
Corporal William
Fenton of the US Marines lays badly wounded on a gurney inside USS Samaritan
hospital ship, anchored very near the beach of Iwo Jima, waiting for medical
treatment. Dicky Chapelle explained in some of her illustrated essays that a
total of 551 critically wounded marines were brought aboard that ship trying to
save their lives. And she got pictures of many of them. Iwo Jima was one of the
most fiercely fought battles during the Second World War, with 6,821 marines
killed and 19,217 wounded, while the Japanese forces had got around 21,000 dead
and only 216 prisoners.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin Historical Images
But her life turning point
as a human being and as a combat photographer took place in 1945 when she was
for the first time with the US marines during the battles of Iwo Jima and
Okinawa in the Pacific theatre of operations during the Second World War.
Cover of the
April 2016 number of America in WWII illustrated magazine including a detailed
article on the landmark reportage on critically wounded marines and doctors
attending them made by Dickey Chapelle in Iwo Jima during February and March of 1945. More than
half a century after her death, Dickey Chapelle´s photographic work keeps on
being studied and accoladed both in the sphere of photojournalism and highly
specialized historical magazines.
She got pictures of
umpteen badly injured marines inside the USS Samaritan hospital ship, as well
as seeing many of them die,
Iwo Jima
airstrip, captured by US troops during the sixth day of battle. In the
background is visible the mythical Mount Suribachi, which the Japanese forces
had turned into a virtually impregnable honeycomb of caves, underground
tunnels, bunkers, artillery places, machine-gun nests, mortar pillboxes, sniper
foxholes, etc, so it was extremely difficult to capture it and a very high
figure of US marines were killed.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin
Historical Images
and would even go to Iwo
Jima inner island to get more pictures.
It was the beginning of an eternal relationship with them, to such an extent that defying the ban on
female correspondents to go ashore in combat areas, she decided to go with the
marines to Okinawa island and experience things in front line.
That meant an indelible
event in her existence, because if Iwo Jima had been a huge carnage,
May of 1945.
United States soldiers unloading wooden boxes with human blood of different
types from a Douglas C-47 Dakota military transport aircraft in an airport of
Okinawa to attend the thousands of American marines and G.Is seriously injured
during the battle for the island.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin Historical
Images
Okinawa would beat every
record in terms of bloody clash and death toll in the Pacific War, with 20,000
American soldiers dead and 110,000 Japanese ones.
Dickey Chapelle spent ten
days inside the island with a medical company.
Her pictures made in Iwo
Jima and Okinawa were published by Cosmopolitan magazine in December of 1945.
A marine
pyschiatrist and a hospital corpsman tend to a wounded marine at a field
hospital in Okinawa. May of 1945.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin
Historical Images
From then on, she would
never be undeterred by danger.
She always went to
extraordinary lengths to cover a story in every war she was present, tackling
constant high risks for her life, specially in Vietnam War, during the coverage
of her famous
National
Geographic of February 1966, publishing again the article made by Dickey
Chapelle " Water War in Vietnam " made by her in 1964 in the Mekong
river delta and another one on his death in Vietnam on November 4, 1965, titled
Dickey Chapelle Killed in Action.
" Water War in
Vietnam " essay for National Geographic magazine, with the South
Vietnamese Army gunboats being often shot from the Mekong river banks by
Vietcong machine guns and snipers;
© Dickey Chapelle / Wisconsin Historical Images
getting pictures during
mortar shelling capturing the reaction of children;
Cover of the
National Geographic magazine number of November, 1962 including the article
" Helicopters Over South Vietnam " with text and photos by Dickey
Chapelle.
getting
pictures of US helicopters at Khanh Hung, Vinh Loi, Can Tho, Kha Quang and over
the sunlit rice fields of Ba Xuyen Province
© Dickey Chapelle / Wisconsin
Historical Images
photographing highly
stressful interrogations of VC prisoners;
© Dickey Chapelle /
Wisconsin Historical Images
getting images of civilian
casualties of war;
documenting South
Vietnamese troops advancing up river on a small vessel in 1961,
To create
this great picture Dickey Chapelle has masterfully used her Leica M2 coupled to
a Leitz canada Summicron 35 mm f/2 1st version, probably choosing f/8 or f/11
to get great depth of field, highlighting the standing man on the boat with a
rifle visible hanging from his shoulders (and whose mission is to watch the
horizon in search of enemy troops). She has managed to generate a dramatic
image whose main focus of attention is the dog crossing the makeshift wooden
bridge. An impending instant of increased danger is about to take place,
because the standing man will have to crouch very much or sit on the boat to
cross under the bridge. This is an exceedingly dangerous context, because the
small vessel is overcrowded with men, and ambushes by Viet Cong members were
very frequent. The men in the background are keeping an eye on the right shore,
looking for hidden enemies or booby-traps. The photographer has faithfully
depicted an atmosphere of death risk constantly pervading everything, enhanced
by the powerful shadows and the anxious countenance of one of the South Vietnamese
soldiers at the front of the vessel, who is looking backwards fearing a VC
attack from that direction.
© Dickey Chapelle /
Wisconsin Historical Images
capturing with her Leica
M2 and Summicron-M 35 mm f/2, from a very low angle with one knee on the
ground, the South Vietnamese soldiers disembarking with fixed bayonet in their
rifles from a US Army Piasecki H-21C Shawnee helicopter in 1962 on their way to
assault a village near Soc Tranh suspected of harboring Vietcong; photographing
US marine crew chief Nelson West and some South Vietnamese soldiers heavily
armed inside a helicopter patrolling an area near Vinh Quoi (Vietnam) in 1962,
and many others, including the coverage of the Black Ferret operation during
its two first days, embedded with the US marines and utterly sharing risks with
them until her death.
Therefore, Dickey Chapelle
reached the apex of her 23 years professional career as a war correspondent between 1961 and 1965, covering the Vietnam War, making amazing photographs and
becoming one of the greatest combat photographers in the world at the time,
something exceedingly praiseworthy, because there were a number of also internationally
acclaimed photographers getting pictures of that conflict : Henri Huet, Horst
Faas, Huynh Thanh My (Nick Ut´s brother), Larry Burrows, Kent Porter, Keiseburo
Shimamoto, Joseph Galloway, Phillip Jones Griffiths, Steve Stibbens, Don Hirst,
Tim Page, Kyoichi Sawada and others.
DEATH IN THE FIELD WHILE
GOING ON PATROL AS A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER WITH THE U.S MARINES
Chaplain John
McNamara from Boston makes the sign of cross as he administers the last rites
to Dickey Chapelle, who has just died near Chu Lai (South Vietnam) because of
the shrapnel of a Viet Cong booby-trap impacting on her neck. The body of the
courageous American war photographer is lying upside down on the
ground in the middle of a pool of blood, while her face and her lower left
forearm are also covered with blood.
© Henri Huet / AP
Dickey Chapelle was killed
on November 4, 1965 by a piece of shrapnel of a tripwire booby-trap put by
Vietcong and made up by a mortar shell and a hand grenade attached to its top
while she was on assignment for The Observer magazine and advancing embedded
with a US marine platoon during the second day of Operation Black Ferret, 16 km
south of the coastal city of Chu Lai, Quang Ngai Province, in South Vietnam,
becoming the first female American war photographer killed in action.
Throughout years there has
been some speculation that she died inside a helicopter while being evacuated
to a hospital after having been wounded by a Vietcong land mine.
But Jack Paxton, a highly
experienced retired veteran captain of the US Marines and director of the
Marine Corps Correspondents Association, who was a war photographer with the
1st Marine Division in Korea between 1951-1952 and with the III Marine
Amphibious Force in Vietnam in 1965-1966, proved that those rumors were false,
and that Dickey Chapelle died in the field, because of the lethal wound in her
carotid artery made by the shrapnel of a Viet Cong booby trap.
If it were not enough, the
certainty of captain John Paxton´s statement is utterly reinforced by the
analysis of the cinematographic footage of Dickey Chapelle´s body on the ground
shot with Arriflex 16S movie camera attached to 400 feet magazine and
Kodachrome color film few seconds after the administering of the last rites to
her by Chaplain McNamara:
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
The Vietcong booby-trap
has exploded a few minutes ago, killing Dickey Chapelle and seriously injuring
four marines because of the deadly arc described by the shrapnel of the mortar
shell with a grenade on top. Some of the marines are being attended at the
moment.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
A wounded marine is lying
on the floor, being attended while another marine writes down his personal data
on a paper sheet to stick on his uniform before being evacuated by helicopter.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
Body of Dickey Chapelle,
upside down and with the right side of her face lying on the ground, in the
middle of a big pool of blood. A piece of shrapnel has made impact on her neck,
cutting her carotid artery.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
A marine takes Dickey´s
pulse, verifying that she is dead. The nearer shot made by the 16 mm
cinematographic camera reveals that the pool of blood is approximately one
meter wide.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
A South Vietnamese doctor
writes down Dickey Chapellé s data on a paper sheet to attach to her jacket.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
After a few more minutes,
two Sikorsky H-34 helicopters arrive to evacuate Dickey Chapelle´s body and the
wounded marines.
© Wisconsin Historical Images
Dickey Chapelle´s body has
just been tied to a stretcher being taken by two American soldiers to one of
the helicopters.
Henri Huet (war
photographer for Associated Press in Vietnam) is visible beside the gurney. A
few minutes ago he got the vertical black and white picture of chaplain
McNamara administering the last rites to Dickey Chapelle.
Henry Huet´countenance
reveals shock and deep introspection. He has decided to accompany Dickey Chapelle´s body until the evacuation
in one of the helicopters. He does feel the need to do this.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
The stretcher bearers
increase their walking speed, because this is a dangerous context in which
there could be a Viet Cong attack, and Henri Huet also accelerates his steps.
He hasn´t taken any
picture and doen´t look at Dickey Chapelle´s body on the stretcher at any
moment. Dickey´s face is full of blood. She has died doing what she most loved.
Henry Huet keeps on being
with a kind of lifeless gaze. The helicopter is nearer. He knows he will not
share more instants with the brave war photojournalist from Milwaukee
(Wisconsin).
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
Henri Huet slows his
walking pace a bit. He is absolutely despondent, grabbing with his right hand a
Nikon F attached to a Nikkor-P Auto 105 mm f/2.5 Pre-AI lens, while a
Leica M2 coupled to a Summaron-M 35 mm f/2.8 lens with its 12585 shade is
hanging from his neck and visible on his chest. But he will go on without getting any picture, because now top priority
is full respect to Dickey Chapelle´s body during these last instants until
reaching the helicopter.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
The stretcher bearers are
about to reach the helicopter and Henri Huet slows very much his walking pace.
He keeps on being pensive and distressed and hasn´t looked at Dickey´s body
during these meters.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
The stretcher bearers are
now at very few meters from the helicopter that will evacuate Dickey Chapelle´s
body, and Henri Huet has stopped accompanying her. He will die six years later,
on February 10, qirh Larrry Burrows (Life magazine), Kent Potter (UPI), and
Keizaburo Shimamoto (Newsweek) 1971 inside a helicopter UH-1 Huey of the South
Vietnam Army shot down by hidden North Vietnamese anti aircraft guns in
Southern Laos
© Wisconsin Historical Images
Because of the highly
stressful circumstances previous to the arrival of the helicopters, the South
Vietnamese doctor had forgotten to attach the sheet of paper with Dickey
Chapelle´s data on her body, so he runs towards the stretcher bearers and does
it in the last moment.
THE PRESERVATION OF A HUGE
HUMAN AND PHOTOGRAPHIC LEGACY
Fifty-four years have
elapsed since the death of Dickey Chapelle on November 4, 1965 in Vietnam while
going on patrol as a war photographer embedded with the US marines.
© Wisconsin
Historical Images
She was and goes on being
a fundamental figure in the History of Photojournalism, a world-class war
photographer and a pioneer along with Gerda Taro, Margaret Bourke-White,
Therese Bonney, Toni Frissell, Margueritte Higgins, and Catherine Leroy, in
proving that women could be as good as men in such an extremely dangerous job.
Dickey Chapelle could have
chosen a much easier way, earning much more money and enjoying a comfortable
life.
Because she was a
tremendously intelligent woman who already at the Shorewood (Milwaukee) High
School graduated as valedictorian of her class, with such high marks that she
obtained a full scholarship to study aeronautical design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she enhanced her fascination for aircraft
and dreamed of flying them.
As a matter of fact, she
became an outstanding expert in aviation and an authority in her beloved
Grumman F3F US Navy biplane fighter from second half of thirties, on which she
made an article with text and pictures that was published by The New York
Times.
But she finally opted for
devoting her life to photography, as a foreign unfettered combat correspondent,
documenting conflicts around the world and giving vent to her hunker for
adventure.
Dickey Chapelle was a very
special person, with aura, a tremendous sense of comradeship wherever she was,
impressive intelligence and insight of the psychological forces unfolding
during combats and the instants previous to them, giving good advice to
everybody and steadily trying to help.
Her heart and
unselfishness were immense.
That´s why stunningly,
memorials keep on being held for her more than fifty years after her death.
Suffice it to say that
during forties and first half of fifties she asked some publishers not to be
paid more than her husband Tony Chapelle, that had taught her the basic
photographic concepts, and that she traveled in December 1945 from Vietnam to
the St. Albans Hospital (Vermont) in United States to visit Corporal William
Fenton, who had been about to die during Iwo Jima battle ten months before, and
spent the Christmas Day with him and his family.
And whenever she was asked
if war was a place for a woman, she always answered that definitely not, but
that in addition, it wasn´t a place for any human being.
Three critically
wounded marines shot in February 1945 during the pitched battle for Suribachi
Mount in Iwo Jima and evacuated with a landing craft are on stretches and about
to be raised on board of the USS Samaritan medical ship, anchored very near the
island beach. Throughout her lectures all over the United States, the great war
photographer from Milwaukee (Wisconsin) was an unwavering advocate of blood
transfusions significance to save many lives of American soldiers and marines.
Photo: Dickey Chapelle / © Wisconsin Historical Images
To get the best possible
pictures as a fearless combat photographer, often in front lines or beside
seriously injured US soldiers and marines, became her raison d´être, insisting
on reporting only about what she could see first hand in the very scenery where
action took place, being a devotee of physical fitness and preparing as a
marine, running 3 miles on a daily basis, with unbridled enthusiasm.
But there was always a
further very important thing for her : not to receive any favouritism by the
marines when she went embedded with them, not to interfere any way in their
missions, not to be granted any special treatment by them, because Dickey Chapelle
did know that it would have jeopardized their lives.
That´s why the little big
woman went always with them as a one more marine, rising to the challenge.
Because however incredible
it may seem, evidence clearly suggests that Dickey Chapelle considered the
marines as if they were her children, and all of them, from the rank and file
to the highest officers, felt that love right off the bat in Iwo Jima and
Okinawa in 1944 and subsequently in Vietnam after she got her first pictures in
the village of Binh Hung in 1961.
It follows that she was
mentally stronger than many men, and developed a protective instinct in this
regard which began in mid thirties when still being a teenager she started to lovely take the left hand of her brother
Robert (born in 1924, five years younger than Dickey, who would be Physics
Professor at the University of Wisconsin and was always bowled over by her
sister´s accomplishments) with her right one in the family pictures made during
thirties, with all of them elegantly dressed.
n 1963 Dickey
Chapelle won the internationally prestigious National Press Photographers
Association Award for her illustrated article " Helicopters Over South
Vietnam " published by National Geographic magazine in its number of
November of the previous year, when she flew embedded with some American
helicopter units during different operations.
By dint of tenacity,
infatuation with photography, progressively gleaned experience, endeavor to think
as a photographer such as she had been taught during forties in weekly classes
by her husband Tony Chapelle, observation of the images made by other prominent
war photographers of the time, writing down of all kind of anecdotes and
important data in small notebooks she always took with her, increasing mastery
using Leica cameras and lenses optimized for the in-fighting distances, etc,
Dickey Chapelle managed to become one of the best war photographers in the
world from early sixties, after having published her images in such prestigious
international illustrated magazines as Look, Reader´s Digest, Life, The
Observer, National Geographic and others.
She died in Vietnam on
November 4, 1965, unabatedly doing what she most loved : to get pictures as a
combat photographer, fending for herself and leaving an everlasting memory in
all the people who had the chance to know her.
And her towering figure,
legacy and remembrance have mainly been preserved thanks to the efforts of some
persons and institutions that have strenuously fought throughout decades to keep
her memory alive :
- Ron Chapelle (retired
major of the USAF, stepson of Dickey Chapelle and son of the great photographer
Tony Chapelle, who was Dickey Chapelle´s husband for fifteen years and taught
her the fundamentals of photography and how to tell stories with images at the
beginning of her career)
- Martha Rosemeyer (Dickey
Chapelle´s niece).
- Rob Meyer (Dickey´s
nephew who was nine year old when the war photojournalist died).
- Karen de Hartog (Historian
of Shorewood village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, where Dickey Chapelle was
born and brought up).
- Dorothy Stock Hoffmann
(classmate of Dickey Chapelle at the Shorewood High School in 1942 and a great
admirer of hers).
- Joseph Galloway (one of the
foremost combat photographers during Vietnam War, great friend of Dickey
Chapelle, decorated in 1998 with the Star Medal of the United States Armed
Forces for risking his life helping to rescue a badly wounded marine under
enemy fire on November 15, 1965, during the Battle of la Drang Valley, National
Magazine Award in 1991, New Media Award of the National VFW for coverage of the
Persian Gulf War in 1992 and 2005 Tex McCrary Award of the Congressional Medal
of Honour Society).
- Jackie Spinner (former combat
photographer, who worked for the Washington Post from 1995 to 2009, covering
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, member of the Society of Professional
Journalists and presently a journalism teacher at Columbia College Chicago).
- Jack Paxton (great
friend of Dickey Chapelle, retired captain of the USMC, sadly passed away on
April 17, 2018, combat correspondent with the 1st Marine Division in Korea
between 1951-1952 and with the III Marine Amphibious Force in Vietnam in
1965-1966).
- Martin Hintz (Milwaukee
journalist).
- John Garofolo (author of
the gorgeous 2015 book Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, Photographs by the first
American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action).
- The Wisconsin Historical
Society, which has been able throughout the fifty-four years elapsed since
Dickey Chapelle´s death to increasingly foster the interest for her great
pictures and fascinating personality.
- The Milwaukee Press
Club, in whose Hall of Fame Dickey Chapel was inducted in 2014.
Dickey Chapelle Under
Fire, Photographs by the first American Female War Correspondent Killed in
Action, a milestone and very interesting 136 page and big 24.8 x 2.3 x 24. 8 cm
size book containing a wisely chosen selection of 153 riveting b & w photos
made by the great female combat photographer, written by John Garafolo (a
commander in the US Coast Guard Reserve, with more than twenty-five years of
active and reserve military service, having taught at the Coast Guard Academy,
as well as having been a veteran of the First Iraqi War), with foreword by
Jackie Spinner and edited by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
A top-notch work made
without compromises of any kind : highly resistant hardcover, excellent quality
of pictures reproduction, knowledgeable choice of paper thickness, and above
all, an insightful and poignant coverage of Dickey Chapelle´s powerful life
story and influential photographic work.
This book is a commendable
effort to keep alive the flame of Dickey Chapelle´s memory and a must for any
enthusiast of photojournalism, war photography or simply amazing pictures from
the heyday of
© Wisconsin Historical Images
stories told with black
and white images by a great combat correspondent, skilfull photographer and
extraordinary woman that was second to none in courage, committment, love and
passion for what she did, risking her life and going above and beyond her call
of duty as a war photographer, from dawn to setting sun, in every clime and
place, until her death.
For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right
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I knew her pictures and only now the sad story of the person behind them, tragic
ReplyDeleteThanks for creating this page, it's excellent work. One small clarification on the life vests being worn in photo 05g1.jpg. Chapelle has one 35mm film canister not two. The other cylindrical object on two of these vests is an emergency signal light. (see https://www.aeronantiques.com/23044/korean-war-us-navy-mk-2-mae-west-life-preserver.jpg)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification.
Delete