David Burnett

Born on September 7, 1946, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Burnett’s journey into photography began in high school when his mother encouraged him to join a student activity to strengthen his college applications. He joined the yearbook staff and discovered the transformative magic of the darkroom—a moment he recalls with awe as his first true encounter with visual storytelling. By the time he was a student at Colorado College studying political science, Burnett was already freelancing for local papers, covering sports and community events.

In 1967, he landed an internship at Time magazine, which launched him into the world of editorial photography. Soon after, he was on assignment in Vietnam, first as a freelancer and then for Life magazine, where he became one of the final photographers hired before its original weekly publication ended. His work from that era captured not just the violence of war, but also the human resilience within it. In the 1970s, Burnett joined the French photo agency Gamma before co-founding the New York-based Contact Press Images in 1976, a pivotal platform for independent photojournalism.

Burnett has covered some of the most significant events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the fall of Saigon, the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the famine in Ethiopia, multiple Olympic Games, and every U.S. presidential election since 1972. His coverage of the 1973 Chilean coup earned him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for "exceptional courage and enterprise abroad." He’s also received top honors from World Press Photo, the Overseas Press Club, and the American Society of Magazine Photographers, and in 2018 was awarded the Sprague Award for Lifetime Achievement by the National Press Photographers Association.

Throughout his career, Burnett’s lens has focused not just on the grand scale of history but on the intimate moments that reveal character and humanity. Whether capturing the anguish of Olympic runner Mary Decker's fall or the quiet dignity of Cambodian refugees, Burnett’s photographs are rich with empathy and complexity. His approach prioritizes storytelling over spectacle, seeking not just the "winner" in any scene, but the deeper emotional truth behind it.

A Sony Artisan of Imagery, Burnett continues to embrace both analog and digital photography, often shooting with vintage lenses and large-format cameras alongside the latest technology. He believes today's photographers live in an era of unprecedented creative opportunity, but insists that making a compelling image still requires vision, timing, and a connection to the world.

Burnett’s books—E-motion: The Spirit of Sport (1997), Soul Rebel: An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley (2009), 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World (2010), and L’Homme Sans Gravité (2015)—offer deeper insight into his diverse body of work and the historical moments he has witnessed.

Beyond the headlines, Burnett is a thoughtful observer of life’s quieter dimensions. Whether capturing the intensity of political arenas or the grace of senior athletes, his work resonates with a deep respect for the people and events he documents. Reflecting on his life and career, Burnett remains humble and grateful: “I made some pictures that are relevant to what happened in this world that I lived in… and maybe, just maybe, there are a few good pictures I haven’t made yet.”