Dick Swanson

Dick L. Swanson is an American photographer renowned for his work, particularly as a war photographer with numerous published photographs in the United States.

Biography

Early life Dick Swanson was born in 1934 and raised in Illinois. He worked at newspapers owned by his uncle and later became a staff photographer at the News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois while studying at the University of Illinois.

Life magazine first published one of his photos, a Miscellany called A Bubble that has Ears, in 1957. Swanson temporarily gave up photography to become a commercial pilot. Following college, he worked for The Des Moines Register and the Davenport Democrat and he later signed a contract with New York's Black Star.

Vietnam In 1966, Swanson went on assignment for Life to Vietnam, where he met his future wife, Germaine Loc; they married in 1969 in Vietnam and moved to the US in 1971. For his work in Vietnam, he was recognized as among the top military photographers by the project "A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces." Eventually Swanson became a White House photographer for Life until the magazine ended publication in 1972. Swanson stayed at the White House bureau and worked for such magazines as Fortune, People, and Time.

Later life In April 1975, Swanson returned to Vietnam to bring his wife's family to the United States during the fall of Saigon. He took time off from photography in the late 1970s to help his wife open a Washington DC restaurant which was popular in 1979.

Around 1980, Swanson began working for National Geographic, Newsweek and The Washington Post as a freelance photographer. Currently he uses Final Cut Pro for all his work and is a producer of films for the Video Action Fund. His work is also in the LIFE Image Collection owned by Getty Images.