The Astonishing Catherine Leroy

At the World's Greatest Photography Magazine,* the astonishing story of the French war photographer Catherine Leroy. Raised in a convent in Paris and determined to be a combat photographer, she booked a one-way ticket to Laos in 1966 when she was only 21, arriving with no affiliations, no credentials, a Leica M2, and only $100 to her name. She became one of the most daring, and among the most accomplished, photographers of the Vietnam conflict.

Catherine Leroy with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in a combat
jump, photographing the jump as she made it [NYT caption]

She was the first journalist in the Southeast Asian conflict to participate in a combat parachute drop (above).

This is a photographer we should rightly know more about. Catherine Leroy retired from combat photography after working in Lebanon in the mid-1980s, and died of lung cancer in California in 2006.

Mike

*I know the New York Times is behind a paywall for some readers. As I've said before, I think it's worthwhile to subscribe just for the excellent photographic content, which is plentiful. I mention stories from the newspaper from time to time; hope you won't mind.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Thomas Paul McCann: "The last time you recommended the NYT subscription I subscribed. As a European I find their editorial suits me and happily read it daily, but I'm jiggered if I have yet to come across anything specifically photographic. Where do you find it?"

Mike replies: Underneath the main title on the home page you'll see a horizontal list of subtopics starting with "World." All the way to the right is a tab marked "All." Click that and a vertical list at the left appears. Click "Photography."

Other relevant content you will find in various sections—Arts, Obituaries (such as Don Hunstein's), sometimes in editorial features such as today's interactive "Road to Nowhere," which identifies individuals in a group photo. Unfortunately there's no central clearinghouse of all the relevant content, and you might find it anywhere. For example, the Catherine Leroy feature is in "Opinion" because it's written by a guest author.

Adding to the problem is that the newspaper's "Search" function is poor. For instance, when I enter "Catherine Leroy," the current feature on her that I linked to here doesn't even come up at all.

Dave Kee: "This April marks the 50th anniversary of the battle of Khe Sanh which Catherine photographed so heroically, and for me personally of heading off to basic training at Ft. Dix, N.J. Thankfully, I was never shipped overseas, but god bless all of those who were, and thank god for her courage in documenting it for all of us."

Comments

[Rob L.]

Thank you - this was amazing - proving the value of both my Patreon subscription and my NYT one, too.

[Bruce]

Woowoo, what a set of photos!! Fortunately not behind a paywall here in Australia. Their headline totally correct-- never heard of her. What a movie her life would make... what did she do later? How did she get there? Where do you develop films in a war zone? DO you develop films in a war zone? Or do you just post or send undeveloped films and trust your luck? How do you get images out to the world? So much behind the story. Thanks for sharing this amazing story to us, Mike.

[Tim Bradshaw]

I've just seen the new King Kong film, which prominently features a female war photographer who had worked in Vietnam and uses a Leica (and, inevitably, a Nikon F). Given how extraordinarily aware the film is of its own antecedents, I wonder if that was meant to be her?

(Not French, however, but still I will pretend to myself it was meant to be her.)

[Larry Wilkins]

Wonderful story and powerful photos. Thanks, Mike.

[James]

Or alternatively Mr McCann could start at https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/

[Mike]

Although I subscribe to the on-line NYT, the cluttered look and design of it's home page always makes it the last news source I read in the morning. And now to find out that it has such a wealth of photos specifically highlighted! Yet another reason to support you through Patreon. Thank you.

[John Krill]

Mike in reference to your search problems with NY Times I did a Google search after reading your post yesterday and the top result was the NY Times article.

Go figure.

[Chuck Albertson]

The Catherine Leroy feature isn't on the Lens blog, but is part of a series the paper has been running on the year 1967 during the war in Vietnam, which isn't featured too prominently (or for too long) on the front page.

By the way, I usually get to the Lens blog by scrolling to the bottom of the front page to the list of subject areas, and click on "Photography."

[Phil]

I subscribe to the online NYT and yes, it's a bit of a luxury, but let's face it, that indulgence is nothing compared to the "indulgence" if I had succumbed to that lovely lens in the previous post!

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Interestingly, Jay Defoore of Popular Photography wrote a very nice, full obit for Catherine Leroy in December, 2008. Read it while you can, as PopPhoto's own obit has already been written.

[William Cook]

I read the NYT and the photo section on an ipad and have placed dedicated bookmark icons on the home screen for each; now each is only a button tap away. I suppose a desktop or laptop user could do the same. I have a separate folder for my news sources that I frequently read and a separate folder for the photographic sources. NYT photo sits adjacent to TOP in that folder! I do the same on my iphone.

[Peter Komar]

Having been of prime draft age at the tail end of the war in Vietnam I was fortunate to have received a high number in the picking your birthday number and matching it to a number between 1 and 365. It was broadcast on the radio and if you were a young male you were glued to the radio to hear your number. I realize this is a long introduction but the story of Catherine and her follow up with the young soldier from one of her iconic images hit me like a ton of bricks. That poor soul was tormented his whole life and although I thought I understood the damage any war can inflict on the survivors, her follow up was especially heart wrenching, just can't stop thinking about it.

[Dale]

Mike, I could be wrong, but didn't American Photographer once do a feature on her too?

[Louis Jay]

I was very pleased to see your posting about the NY Times piece on Catherine Leroy. I was very pleased to meet and know her. In the 1980’s I had my photography studio in Chelsea in New York City. I was doing advertising work and I also ran a workshop for photographers called The Lighting Workshop basically teaching studio lighting. Someone recommended my workshop to Catherine, who was in New York at the time, (around 1985). One morning she phoned me and asked to stop by my studio to ask about the workshop. She came by and said that she needed some help with lighting for portraits and proposed that i give her a private week long training. She was going to China for Time magazine to do portraits of the Peoples Republic leadership. I agreed to do this week session and really got to know her and her incredible work.

She was a fast learner and a remarkable photographer and person.

And by the way, American Photographer did do a feature on her.