WarCos Colorado Presents: 

George Silk: War Correspondent, LIFE Magazine

 

Part One: George Silk Biography 
Born November 17th 1916, George Silk was born in the New Zealand town of Levin, New Zealand, the fourth child of Arthur Silk and Emma Constance Naylor. He left school at the age of 14 and worked in camera shop at 16

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His career as a war photographer began in 1939, when he was a combat cameraman for the Australian government, covering action in the Middle East, North Africa and Greece. 

 

​The New Zealand-born photographer joined Damien Parer in the Middle East in May 1940 as the second of Australia’s official Second World War photographers. The young photographer fully understood the significance of his appointment. He later recalled thinking of his role at the time as a “crusade”: he “was going to save the world by [his] photographs”. For Silk, the photograph was an object of enormous power; it could reveal truths about the world and mobilize action.

 

In spite of his relative inexperience, Silk was well-equipped to photograph the events in the Middle East. He was highly competent in the use of small- and medium format cameras, and had developed a reputation as a sports photographer. In the Middle East, Silk was responsible for still photographs; Parer and Frank Hurley, who was appointed soon after Silk, were largely responsible for moving images. His photographs of Australians fighting in Greece, Syria and Lebanon, and at the siege of Tobruk, are among the best of any photographs taken during the war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It was, however, in the Pacific theatre that Silk made his preeminent reputation. In New Guinea, Silk walked 300 miles with the Allied forces, an ordeal later described in the book War in New Guinea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While in the Pacific, the Australian Department of Information’s refused to pass for publication photographs Silk had taken. Silk had put himself at great risk in action against Japanese troops around Buna, new Guinea, to get these pictures of Australian troops. Due to the dissagreements with the Australian Department of Information, Silk resigned in protest with the department around New Year’s day of 1943. 

 

Silk was almost immediatley hired by Life magazine, who published the pictures in question, and for whom he photographed action in the Pacific and in Europe.

 

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LIFE Magazine Photographers Carl Mydans and George Silk (R) with their cameras outside of Rome, Italy - June 4, 1944. Between the both of them they would take over 6,000 pictures during the Italian Campaign.

 

Silk photographed many important events during World War II. He covered the war on the Italian front, the Allied invasions of France and the Pacific.

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 On the 23rd February 1945 George Silk joined men of the 29th Infantry Division as they crossed the Roer to attack the German town of Jülich. As Silk crossed the treadway bridge a GI in front of him was killed by mortar fragments. After pausing to photograph this, he safely reached the opposite bank. He photographed the mopping up operation, some Germans who had been missed in the darkness surrended. As they were moved back towards the foot bridge one of them detonated a hand grenade killing one GI and wounding several others, including Silk who was wounded in the legs by shrapnel. The footbridge took a direct hit and began to break up. Life reproduced the images in close sequence so as to emphasis the drama and danger of the crossing. Seen here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silk took the first photographs of Nagasaki, Japan, after the atomic bomb was dropped there on 9 August 1945, as well as Japanese war criminals awaiting trial in post-war Tokyo.

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Following the war, Silk’s work primarily focused on sports photography and found innovative ways to capture motion. His expertise included sailing and once shot the America’s Cup races atop a 90-foot mast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In December 1972, Silk was in Nepal, shooting an assignment on Himalayan game parks, when he received news that the magazine had folded. According to the 1977 book That Was the Life, he replied by saying, "Your message . . . badly garbled. Please send one-half million dollars additional expenses."

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He worked for Life magazine from 1943 to 1972.

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In 1961, Silk was chosen as one of 50 outstanding Americans of meritorious performance in the fields of endeavor, to be honored as a Guest of Honor to the first annual Banquet of the Golden Plate in Monterey, California. Honor was awarded by vote of the National Panel of Distinguished Americans of the Academy of Achievement.

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Edward Steichen included his pictures taken in Jamaica in the 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man which toured the world to be seen by 9 million visitors.

 

He was named magazine photographer of the year four times by the National Press Photographers Association.

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Silk became a U.S. citizen in 1947 and married Margery Gray Schieber on 22 November 1947 at San Gabriel, California, USA. Silk died in Norwalk, Connecticut on 23 October 2004 due to congestive heart failure.