Current:Home > Contact-usHal Buell, who led AP’s photo operations from darkroom era into the digital age, dies at age 92-InfoLens
Hal Buell, who led AP’s photo operations from darkroom era into the digital age, dies at age 92
View Date:2024-12-23 16:18:07
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Hal Buell, who led The Associated Press’ photo operations from the darkroom era into the age of digital photography over a four-decade career with the news organization that included 12 Pulitzer Prizes and running some of the defining images of the Vietnam War, has died. He was 92.
Buell died Monday in Sunnyvale, California, where his daughter lived, after battling pneumonia, his daughter Barbara Buell said in an email.
“He was a great father, friend, mentor, and driver of important transitions in visual media during his long AP career,” his daughter said. “When asked by the numerous doctors, PT, and medical personnel he met over the last six months what he had done during his working life, he always said the same thing: ‘I had the greatest job in the whole world.’ ”
Colleagues described Buell as a “visionary” who encouraged photographers to try new ways of covering hard news. As the editor in charge of AP’s photo operations from the late 1960s to the 1990s, he supervised a staff that won 12 Pulitzer Prizes on his watch and worked in 33 countries, with legendary AP photographers including Eddie Adams, Horst Faas and Nick Ut.
“Hal pushed us an extra step,” Adams said in an internal AP newsletter at the time of Buell’s retirement in 1997. “The AP had always been cautious, or seemed to be, about covering hard news. But that was the very thing Buell encouraged.”
Buell made the crucial decision in 1972 to run Ut’s photo of a naked young girl fleeing her village after being torched by napalm dropped by South Vietnamese Air Force aircraft. The image of Kim Phuc became one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War and came to define for many all that was misguided about the war.
After the image was transmitted from Saigon to AP headquarters in New York, Buell examined it closely and discussed it with other editors for about 10 minutes before deciding to run it, he recalled during a 2016 interview.
“We didn’t have any objection to the picture because it was not prurient. Yes, nudity but not prurient in any sense of the word,” Buell said. “It was the horror of war. It was innocence caught in the crossfire, and it went right out, and of course it became a lasting icon of that war, of any war, of all wars.”
Santiago Lyon, a former vice president and director of photography at AP, called Buell “a giant in the field of news agency photojournalism.”
“A generous, warm, and affable man, he always made time for photographers,” Lyon said. “He will be missed.”
Buell joined The AP in the Tokyo bureau on a part-time basis after graduating from Northwestern University in 1954 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism. He was serving with the Army at the time, working on the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.
Out of the Army two years later, he joined AP’s Chicago bureau as a radio writer, and a year later, in 1957, was promoted to the photo desk in AP’s New York office.
Buell returned to Tokyo at the end of the decade to be supervisory photo editor for Asia and came back to New York in 1963 to be AP’s photo projects editor. He became executive news photo editor in 1968, and in 1977 he was named assistant general manager for news photos.
During his decades with AP, technology in news photography took astonishing leaps, going from six hours to six minutes to snap, process and transmit a color photo. Buell implemented the transition from a chemical darkroom where film was developed to digital transmission and digital news cameras. He also helped create AP’s digital photo archive in 1997.
“In the ‘80s, when we went from black-and-white to all color, we were doing a good job to send two or three color pictures a day. Now we send 300,” Buell said in the 1997 AP newsletter.
After retiring in 1997, Buell wrote books about photography, including “From Hell to Hollywood: The Incredible Journey of AP Photographer Nick Ut;" “Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America;” and “The Kennedy Brothers: A Legacy in Photographs.” He was the author of more than a dozen other books, produced film documentaries for the History Channel and lectured across the United States.
Buell is survived by his daughter, Barbara Buell, and her husband, Thomas Radcliffe, as well as two grandchildren and a great-grandson. His wife, Angela, died in 2000, and his longtime partner, Claudia DiMartino, died in October.
___
Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, and the AP Corporate Archives contributed to this report.
veryGood! (1826)
Related
- Missing Ole Miss student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
- K-9 officer put on leave after police dog attacks surrendering suspect
- Kylie Jenner Sets Record Straight on Plastic Surgery Misconceptions
- We Solemnly Swear You'll Want to See Daniel Radcliffe's Transformation Over the Years
- Oprah Winfrey denies being paid $1M for Kamala Harris rally: 'I was not paid a dime'
- Smooth Out Stubborn, Deep-Set Wrinkles and Save 50% On Perricone MD Essential FX Deep Crease Serum
- Scorching temperatures to persist in the West for another week
- Kylie Jenner Shares BTS Photo From Day of Her Reunion With Jordyn Woods
- Kirk Herbstreit berates LSU fans throwing trash vs Alabama: 'Enough is enough, clowns'
- Amy Schumer Reacts to Barbie Movie After Dropping Out of Earlier Version
Ranking
- Paraguay vs. Argentina live updates: Watch Messi play World Cup qualifying match tonight
- Karlie Kloss Reveals Name of Baby No. 2 With Joshua Kushner
- The Voice Debuts First Coaches Photo With Reba McEntire After Blake Shelton's Exit
- Save 44% On a Bertello Portable Pizza Oven That’s Fast and Easy To Use
- Lions find way to win, Bears in tough spot: Best (and worst) from NFL Week 10
- Wife of SpongeBob's Voice Actor Clarifies He's Not Dating Ariana Grande, Being Mistaken for Ethan Slater
- Israel approves divisive judicial overhaul, weakening court's power amid protests
- Who Is Ethan Slater? Everything You Need to Know About Ariana Grande's New Boyfriend
Recommendation
-
Investigators believe Wisconsin kayaker faked his own death before fleeing to eastern Europe
-
Shop the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2023 for the Best Home Deals: Dyson, Barefoot Dreams & More
-
Carlee Russell’s Boyfriend Pleads With People to Stop Bullying Her Amid Disappearance Investigation
-
Feel Free to Salute These Secrets About Saving Private Ryan
-
'Wanted' posters plastered around University of Rochester target Jewish faculty members
-
Selena Gomez Celebrates 31st Birthday With Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera and Other Friends
-
Shakira Brings Her 2 Sons as Her Dates to 2023 Premios Juventud
-
Your Chilling First Look at Kim Kardashian, Emma Roberts & Cara Delevingne in AHS: Delicate Teaser