{"id":5352932,"date":"2019-10-11T16:09:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T16:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.life.com\/?post_type=photographer&p=5352932"},"modified":"2019-10-11T16:09:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T16:09:06","slug":"james-burke","status":"publish","type":"photographer","link":"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/","title":{"rendered":"James Burke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \"James\n
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James Burke standing with friends and a camera around his neck. (Photo by James Burke\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

LIFE’S photographers hailed from a wide variety of countries, but James Burke (1915-1964) is the only one born in China. He attended college in America, married a newspaper editor from Richmond, then returned to China to write a book, <\/span>My Father in China<\/span><\/a>, about his missionary father. During World War II he served in that country under General Claire Chennault, and after the war decided to stay as a freelance writer. He did a piece for LIFE in 1948 on a Chinese warlord, and “suddenly realized that my pictures described this warlord so much better than my words that I decided to go much deeper into photography.\u201d Three years later, he was on staff at LIFE. In 1964, Burke was shooting on assignment for LIFE in the Himalayas and while trying to secure a better angle of approach, he <\/span>lost his footing <\/span><\/a>and fell to his death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Adapted from <\/span>The Great LIFE Photographers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n

\n
\n \"Pelican\n
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Pelican riding on a rowboat. (Photo by James Burke\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\n \"LIFE\n
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LIFE magazine cover published March 21, 1960. Featuring Billy Graham in Africa. (Photo by James Burke\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n

\n \"Communist\n
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Communist workers fixing loudspeaker on a stripped coconut tree during the Travancore-Cochin elections. (Photo by James Burke\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIFE’S photographers hailed from a wide variety of countries, but James Burke (1915-1964) is the only one born in China. He attended college in America, married a newspaper editor from Richmond, then returned to China to write a book, My Father in China, about his missionary father. During World War II he served in that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5352940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5352932","photographer","type-photographer","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Photography of James Burke | LIFE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about James Burke, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Photography of James Burke | LIFE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about James Burke, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LIFE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-11T16:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/07175443\/114949537-e1570470882536.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2322\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1547\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/\",\"name\":\"The Photography of James Burke | LIFE\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/07175443\/114949537-e1570470882536.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-11T16:09:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-11T16:09:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn about James Burke, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/james-burke\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/07175443\/114949537-e1570470882536.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/07175443\/114949537-e1570470882536.jpg\",\"width\":2322,\"height\":1547,\"caption\":\"People walking along the shore of Hydra, Greece. 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