IU mourns legendary photographer

For IU alumna Jessica Stuart, photographer Eddie Adams was a teacher, a colleague and a friend.\nAdams, who died Sept. 19 of amyotropic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and educator.\n"He's the end of an era that can't be recaptured," Stuart said.\nAt 71, Adams left a legacy that touched alumni and faculty at IU and will continue to touch photojournalism students, Stuart said.\nBorn in New Kensington, Pa., Adams covered 13 wars, won more than 500 prizes for his work and shot a picture still haunting the collective conscious of the American public, according to The Associated Press. His photograph of Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a Viet Cong prisoner is credited with turning the tide of support for fighting in Vietnam, and won Adams the Pulitzer Prize. \nBut he did not enjoy the attention and often publicly expressed his regret about what he saw as the misleading nature of the picture. He wrote in Time magazine: "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?'" \nProfessor of Journalism Claude Cookman met Adams when they both worked at the AP office in New York City. He agrees that Adams' legacy will live in that picture. \n"That will be his legacy whether he wanted it to be or not," Cookman said. "But besides his photographs, he was a great educator. He started the Eddie Adams workshop. He was most proud of a picture, (known as) the boat people picture. (Vietnamese refugees) were going from country to country and no one would let them in ... It persuaded the president to let them in." \nAccording to the AP, President Jimmy Carter and Congress allowed 200,000 Vietnamese refugees to immigrate to the U.S. because of the publication of the "boat people" photo. \nAlways concerned with telling the stories accurately, Adams' pictures were "iconic ... rock-'em-sock-'em, full of emotion, incredibly strong. You couldn't miss the message," said Associate Professor of Journalism Steven Raymer, a photojournalist who met Adams when both won Photographer of the Year awards from the National Press Photographers Association. \n"He was the most courageous person I've ever known ... a brave son-of-a-bitch," Raymer said.\nRaymer said Adams will be remembered by how he "agonized about the consequences of his photographs." Both Cookman and Raymer say they teach students about Adams when they teach them about ethics. \nAdams photographed the famous and the infamous. Though he risked his life in Korea, Vietnam and Kuwait, Stuart said he told her he "got tired of wars. Tired of ripping his heart out." \nHe began to photograph celebrities, including Fidel Castro (with whom he went duck hunting), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pope John Paul II and Jerry Lewis, among others, according to the AP. Robin Williams and his family planted a tree for him, Stuart said.\nBesides living an amazing life, Adams had a prolific career, never caring to revel in past accomplishments, Stuart said.\n"He always told everyone to fuck off," she said. "It was a sign of affection. He never cared. He took a picture yesterday and he wanted to take a picture tomorrow." \nUnfortunately, near the end of Adams' life, ALS made it impossible to hold a camera, Stuart said. \nAdams is survived by a large family: his mother, now over 100; four sisters; his wife Alyssa and four children, according to the AP. \n"Barnstorm: the Eddie Adams Workshop," which links more than 100 emerging journalists with more than 100 professionals in the field every October, will continue in his absence.\n"What really hurts me is I put a card in the mail last Saturday," Raymer said. "His death caught a lot of us by surprise. You kind of thought he would live forever."\n-- Contact staff writer Janice Neaveill at jneaveil@indiana.edu.