David Scherman

David E. Scherman (March 2, 1916 – May 5, 1997) was an American photographer, photojournalist, and editor. He is known for his coverage of World War II, being one of the first journalists to discover and photograph the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps and Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment.

Some of the noted personalities Scherman photographed include Ernest Hemingway, Queen Elizabeth, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Fred Astaire, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, among many others. He was the longest-serving staff member of Life Magazine.

Biography

Early life David Edward Scherman was born on March 2, 1916, in Manhattan, to a Jewish family. He was the younger of two sons of Celia (née Harris) and William S. Scherman, a businessman. He grew up in New Rochelle, New York and attended Dartmouth College. Newly graduated, Scherman bought a Leica camera and got hired as a copy boy by Time Life. He quickly impressed editors with his photography and became a photojournalist for LIFE.

SS Zamzam and World War II At age 25, Scherman was traveling aboard the Egyptian ocean liner SS Zamzam, en route to Cape Town on assignment for Life magazine, when the ship was sunk in April 1941 by the Atlantis, a German merchant raider. He discreetly photographed the attack from a lifeboat and smuggled four rolls of film to LIFE, hidden inside a toothpaste container and a tube of shaving cream. His images enabled the British to locate and sink the Atlantis, securing the rescue and repatriation of the American passengers.

He covered the arrival of US troops in Northern Ireland in 1942, the Normandy landings in June 1944 for Life, joining Robert Capa, George Rodger, Robert Landry, John G. Morris, Ralph Morse, and Frank Scherschel) as Allied troops advanced into western France. He was particularly influenced by Capa's approach to war photography, which emphasized proximity to the subject as essential to capturing powerful images. During his time as a war correspondent, he was shot down in an observation plane over Germany and managed to survive two light plane crashes.

Scherman was promoted to editor, and also worked as a film, television, and book reviewer for Life magazine. He was employed as a senior editor when Life ceased its weekly format in 1972. He wrote and edited the best-selling book The Best of Life (1973), and the anthology Life Goes to the Movies (1975).

His nephew is photojournalist Rowland Scherman.

Retirement After Life entirely ceased publication, Scherman retired, and built dozens of houses for friends and family in Cape Cod, Long Island, Rockland, and New Jersey.

His final writing assignment was the foreword to Lee Miller's War, a collection of Miller's letters, photographs, and manuscripts from World War II edited by Miller's son Antony Penrose.

In popular culture David E. Scherman was portrayed by the actor Andy Samberg in the 2023 drama film Lee.