Henri Huet

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Henri Huet covering the Vietnam War.

Henri Huet (April 4, 1927 - 10 February 1971) was a war photographer, noted for his work covering the Vietnam War for Associated Press (AP).

[edit] Early life

Huet was born in Da Lat, Vietnam, the son of a French father and Vietnamese mother. He moved to France with his family when he was five years old and was educated at Saint-Malo in Brittany. After leaving school he studied at the art school in Rennes and began his adult career as a painter. He later joined the French army and received training in photography, returning to Vietnam in 1949 as a French army combat photographer in the First Indochina War. After discharge from the army when the war ended in 1954, Huet remained in Vietnam as a civilian photographer working for the French and American governments. He went on to work for United Press International (UPI), later transferring to AP in 1965, covering the Vietnam War.

[edit] Photographic career

One of Huet's historic series of photographs featuring medic Thomas Cole tending wounded American Soldiers.

Huet's photograph of Thomas Cole featured on the cover of LIFE magazine.

Huet's photographs of the war were influential in moulding American public opinion. One of his most memorable series of photographs featured Pfc Thomas Cole, a young medic of the First Cavalry division, tending fellow soldiers despite his own injuries. The series of twelve photographs was published in the 11 February 1966 edition of LIFE magazine, with one of the haunting images featuring on the cover. In 1967 the Overseas Press Club awarded Huet the Robert Capa Gold Medal for the "best published photographic reporting from abroad, requiring exceptional courage and enterprise".^[1]

During the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos in 1971, Huet accompanied the commanding General Lam, along with three other photojournalists, on a helicopter reconnaissance of the battlefield. The helicopter was shot down over the Ho Chi Minh trail with the presumed loss of all those on board. Huet's fellow photographers were Larry Burrows of LIFE magazine, Kent Potter of UPI and Keizaburo Shimamoto, a freelance photographer working for Newsweek. In 1998, an American led search team excavated the mountainside where the helicopter was thought to have been lost, finding small aircraft parts, two military helmets, and several pieces of 35 mm film. However, no human remains were found.^[2]

Amongst his colleagues covering the war, Huet was respected for his dedication, bravery and skill in the field, and he was loved for his sense of humor and kindness. Dirck Halstead, the Bureau Chief of United Press International in 1965, remarked that he "always had a smile on his face".^[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Digital Journalist, photographs by Henri Huet