Gene Kim: Eddie Adams

Eddie Adams, a Pulitzer-Prize winning photojournalist who first entered the world of combat photography as a Marine in the Korean War, which inspired him to cover and document 12 other wars.  A beautiful range of subjects, themes, and techniques are showcased as his career went on, as apparent in the photos above.  Using extreme lighting that're carefully positioned to bring out the extreme features on Fidel Castro's face, the photo mimics a calligraphy painting in the sense that he utilizes the negative space to give content within.

Caught in the rush of battles, Adams excelled in capturing moments for that simply were, nothing more, nothing less.  In the photo showing an elder Louis Armstrong in the dressing room backstage, it freezes the moment into showing a celebrity and a musician who's reached an idolized status for who he really is, who we all really are: vulnerable, contemplative, anticipating.  Another one of his most famous works include the scene depicting police chief General Nguyen shooting a Viet Cong prisoner point blank in the head, the face of the handcuffed man forever in a flinch, showing the fear of a man who's about to die not even a second later.  It takes away from the dramatic ideals of war; it's brutal, it's without mercy.