Eddie Adams (photographer)

Eddie Adams carried his camera through thirteen wars, but it was a single frame on a Saigon street in 1968 that etched his name into history. The image of a South Vietnamese general executing a Viet Cong prisoner was a visceral shock to the world, winning him a Pulitzer and becoming a stark symbol of the Vietnam War's horror. Adams, who began his career as a Marine combat photographer in Korea, possessed a knack for being in the right place with an unflinching eye, later building an equally formidable portfolio of penetrating celebrity and political portraits for Time and Parade. Yet the weight of that famous photograph never left him; he later expressed regret for its simplification of a complex moment, feeling it unfairly condemned the general. In his later years, he turned his focus to annual workshops, passionately mentoring a new generation of photographers, ensuring his legacy extended far beyond one devastating click of the shutter.