When Catherine Leroy flew to Vietnam in 1966, the United States was rapidly escalating its war against communism there. Though equal rights and equal pay for women were still considered radical in America, she dared to take on the heavily male-dominated world of combat photography.
Bold, determined, and cool under fire, Catherine accompanied marines into the jungle, crawled through rice paddies, and parachuted into combat despite being told she didn’t belong in a “man’s world.”
Scores of photojournalists from around the world risked their lives reporting on the long, costly, and divisive war. For the bloodiest years, 1966-1969, Catherine remained the only woman photographer. Neither capture by the enemy nor shrapnel wounds kept Catherine from getting her pictures. Her raw images showed the brotherhood and compassion of soldiers, the anguish of civilians, and the humanity of the enemy. Published in America’s leading newspapers and magazines, Catherine’s images forced Americans to confront the human cost of war.
Based on Catherine’s personal letters from Vietnam, and including her most powerful photos, this biography is a gripping look at the Vietnam War through the eyes of an extraordinary woman whose legacy of compassion endures today.
“I met Cathy Leroy when I was a young war photographer in Vietnam, and she was already famous for her pictures in Life magazine. I was very impressed that she was as brave and as professional as my male photographer colleagues.
In later years Cathy and I became friends in Los Angeles where she had moved, and I was with the Associated Press bureau there. We both covered the 1992 Los Angeles racial riots where I saw again how daring and talented Cathy was in such a dangerous crisis."
~Huỳnh Công Út, known professionally as Nick Ut, a Vietnamese American photographer for the Associated Press (AP), winner of both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for "The Terror of War", depicting children in flight from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War
Pre-order your copy now!
Bold, determined, and cool under fire, Catherine accompanied marines into the jungle, crawled through rice paddies, and parachuted into combat despite being told she didn’t belong in a “man’s world.”
Scores of photojournalists from around the world risked their lives reporting on the long, costly, and divisive war. For the bloodiest years, 1966-1969, Catherine remained the only woman photographer. Neither capture by the enemy nor shrapnel wounds kept Catherine from getting her pictures. Her raw images showed the brotherhood and compassion of soldiers, the anguish of civilians, and the humanity of the enemy. Published in America’s leading newspapers and magazines, Catherine’s images forced Americans to confront the human cost of war.
Based on Catherine’s personal letters from Vietnam, and including her most powerful photos, this biography is a gripping look at the Vietnam War through the eyes of an extraordinary woman whose legacy of compassion endures today.
“I met Cathy Leroy when I was a young war photographer in Vietnam, and she was already famous for her pictures in Life magazine. I was very impressed that she was as brave and as professional as my male photographer colleagues.
In later years Cathy and I became friends in Los Angeles where she had moved, and I was with the Associated Press bureau there. We both covered the 1992 Los Angeles racial riots where I saw again how daring and talented Cathy was in such a dangerous crisis."
~Huỳnh Công Út, known professionally as Nick Ut, a Vietnamese American photographer for the Associated Press (AP), winner of both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for "The Terror of War", depicting children in flight from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War
Pre-order your copy now!