Dirck Storm Halstead (December 24, 1936March 25, 2022) was an American
photojournalist
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
. He was editor and publisher of ''
The Digital Journalist
''The Digital Journalist'' was a monthly online magazine about photojournalism which was launched in 1997 by Dirck Halstead, its editor and publisher. The site provided an online venue for visual storytellers covering a wide range of topics and sh ...
,'' an online photojournalism magazine.
Early life
Halstead was born in
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. ...
, on December 24, 1936.
His father,
William S. Halstead, was an inventor in radio and television development. He held many patents for his pioneer work in radio and television, including stereophonic FM radio, and developing mountain-top relay systems that were key for building TV networks in Japan and Jordan. His mother, Leslie (Munro) Halstead, worked as a telecommunications engineer.
Halstead was given a
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
Duaflex camera by his parents for Christmas when he was 15 years old, and began photojournalism while in high school. Two years later, he became ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine's youngest combat photographer covering the
Guatemalan civil war
The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups. The government forces have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population ...
. He studied at
Haverford College
Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...
for one year, before dropping out to work in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
. He was subsequently
drafted into the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and served for two years. Upon his return from military service, Halstead joined
UPI
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...
and ultimately worked there for more than 15 years. During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, he was UPI's picture bureau chief in Saigon.
Career
![18thARVNsoldiersatxuanloc by Dirck Halstead](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/18thARVNsoldiersatxuanloc_by_Dirck_Halstead.jpg)
''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' designated Halstead as their Senior White House Photographer in 1972.
He later accepted a contract with them that same year which lasted for the next 29 years. Halstead was one of the six photographers who accompanied
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
on his historic trip to China in 1972.
His photographs have appeared on 49 ''Time'' covers, more than any other photographer.
[ During this period he also worked as a "Special Photographer" on films to produce photographs used in advertising materials for the major commercial studios. The films he worked on included '']Goodfellas
''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' Wis ...
'', '' Memphis Belle'', '' Shaft'', '' Black Rain'', ''Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
'', ''Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
'', ''Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including '' Conan the Barbarian'' and '' Conan the Destroyer'') ...
'' series, '' Greystoke'', and ''Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
''.
Halstead won the National Press Photographers Association
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is based in at ...
Picture of the Year award twice, the Robert Capa Gold Medal The Robert Capa Gold Medal is an award for "best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise". It is awarded annually by the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC). It was created in honor of the war photo ...
for his coverage of the fall of Saigon, and two Eisies. In 2002 he received the lifetime achievement award from the White House News Photographers Association, and in 2004 he won the Joseph A. Sprague Award for lifetime achievement and service to photojournalism. The Missouri Honor Medal from the University of Missouri School of Journalism was given to Halstead in 2007 for superior achievement in journalism.
The archive of Halstead's works is located at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of the University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st governor of Texas. The center collects and preserves documents and a ...
at The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, where he was a senior fellow in photojournalism. His book ''Moments in Time: Photos and Stories from One of America's Top Photojournalists'', was published in 2006.
Personal life
Halstead's three marriages all ended in divorce. He resided in Boquete, ChiriquÃ, Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
, during his later years and died there of a cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
on March 25, 2022, aged 85.
Publications
*''Moments in Time: Photos and Stories from One of America's Top Photojournalists.'' Halstead, Harry N. Abrams, 2006. .
References
External links
The Digital Journalist website
Halstead's website
*
*
with Dirck Halstead
by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, November 14, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halstead, Dirck
1936 births
2022 deaths
People from Huntington, New York
Haverford College alumni
American male non-fiction writers
American photojournalists
Photography in Vietnam
War photographers
American editors