David Douglas Duncan at the Harry Ransom Center

Marjorie Foley — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Duncan with the Sheikh of Huzayel in 1946. Photo by Welles Stabler (via Harry Ransom Center)

In 1996, former Life Magazine photographer David Douglas Duncan donated his archive to the Harry Ransom Center, the premier humanities research center located at The University of Texas at Austin. viz. is proud to be partnering with the Ransom Center this year, and we're extra excited about the Ransom Center's web exhibitions, which include fabulous shots from Duncan's time in the Middle East.

Image Credit: Life Magazine

While photographing Palestine in 1946, Duncan was, according to the Life blurb, offered a "brand new" wife in order to give up his camera, but it was not to be. Douglas would continue on to photograph the the Korean War, Vietnam, and Pablo Picasso.

In 1948, Duncan photographed construction on the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, which would transport oil from Qaisumah, Saudi Arabia to Sidon, on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon, from 1950 until 1976. Also called the Tapline, the pipeline greatly reduced to cost of oil transportation to Europe. These photos, especially the one below, tend to be slightly more playful than his other photos of the Middle East, which often center on religious and political divisions.

Photo by David Douglas Duncan (via Harry Ransom Center)

Here, golfers in mostly Western garb take shots from inside the Tapline. Early oil ventures in Saudi Arabia were dominated by Western companies, and the Tapline is no exception. Built jointly by companies that would later become ExxonMobil, Texaco, and Chevron, the Tapline eventually fell under the ownership of Aramco, which itself wouldn't be fully owned by Saudi Arabia until 1980. By then, the Tapline was no longer operating at full capacity.

Photo by David Douglas Duncan (via Harry Ransom Center)

Here, as the Ransom Center's caption describes, workers delivering pipeline hurry to change a flat tire before the midday sun threatens their lives. The perspective on this photo does not exaggerate each segment's length--each piece is one hundred feet long. And, in proper style, the man changing the tire might as well be Don Draper with his perfect, slicked-back hair.

Photo by David Douglas Duncan (via Harry Ransom Center)

In stark contrast with some of Duncan's other photos, particularly the ones showing divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, this last photo shows a Master Ironmonger working with Africans and Arabs in order to build the Tapline.

Duncan's Tapline photos, as well as many more in the collection, often evoke sentimental feelings for a man who was beloved by sheikhs and spent the entirety of 1957 photographing Picasso. The web exhibition is certainly worth a look, even if it's just for the photograph of Picasso, shirtless, teasing his dog. But don't forget to take a look at the war photos for which Duncan is famous.

LIFE releases previously unreleased photos of MLK from the day of his assassination

Nate Kreuter — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:19:22 +0000

Recently LIFE magazine released previously unreleased photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the day of his assassination. I'm not sure how that works, since LIFE is a now defunct publication, but it may have something to do with their parent company, who surely still exists in some form or another.

It's interesting to think how much the photos of that day that were previously released inform our memory of it (and I use the word "memory" very loosely, since that was well before I was born).

*I haven't posted an image here simply because LIFE, or whoever their parent company is, is probably the kind of company that would sue our poor asses, even though the use would clearly be under the provisions of fair use. I'm wary, especially after the RIAA came after one of our instructors a couple years ago when I student used a clip from a song in a student project that ended up online, which was hosted on the instructor's website. I feel my paranoia is well founded.

viz. - Life Magazine

David Douglas Duncan at the Harry Ransom Center

LIFE releases previously unreleased photos of MLK from the day of his assassination