STRIFE THROUGH A LENS
Just how starkly oxymoronic the phrase ‘female war photographer’ was during world war II is neatly encapsulated by a comment made by a United States Marine Corps general to Dickey Chapelle during the battle of Okinawa. Chapelle, camera poised to capture the troops’-eye view of a blood delivery at an army field hospital, had ignored direct orders not to go ashore from the U.S.S. Relief, and the first words she encountered emanated from the lips of an incredulous commander: “Get that broad the hell out of here!”
Chapelle’s talent jumps out from her body of work — a vast repository of gritty, acutely provocative work documenting humanity and violence: panoramic shots of U.S. helicopters flying over Vietnamese rice fields in 1961; executions by Algerian rebel firing squads; a U.S. marine sat contemplating a barren, battle-scarred landscape days after D-Day at Iwo Jima; Vietnamese children cowering from mortar fire.
“The date went well
