Macolm Browne

I saw in the news this week that Malcolm Browne, the associated press photographer in Saigon during the Vietnam War, had died on 29th August.  Browne is known for his disturbing image of Thich Quang Duc, a vietnamese monk, who set fire to himself in a Saigon street in an act of self-immolation on 11 June 1963, which won a Pulitzer prize. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19396149

Browne won the World Press Photographer of the Year competition in 1963 for a similar photograph:

http://www.archive.worldpressphoto.org/search/layout/result/indeling/detailwpp/form/wpp/q/ishoofdafbeelding/true/trefwoord/year/1963

I prefer the top photograph - the Pulitzer one.  You can see the crowds of monks standing by and the nearby car with its bonnet open.  It's hard to imagine seeing such an event for real and on top of that being able to stand there a take a photograph, although this must be true of war photographers in general.

More of Browne's photographs in a collection of images showing the atrocities of the Vietnam war are available through this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9259915/Malcolm-Browne-Horst-Fass-and-Roy-Essoyan-the-men-who-documented-the-Vietnam-War.html?frame=2322902