About

Horst Faas & Michel Laurent

Germany/France

AP photographers Horst Faas and Michel Laurent teamed up on 18 December 1972 in Bangladesh, one day after the Pakistani army surrendered. Together, they covered the victims of revenge murders and celebrating Bengalis. Later that day, Horst Faas recalled in Editor & Publisher of 1 January 1972, he and Laurent and other foreign correspondents attended a policital rally at the Dhaka race track where they stumbled upon the abuse and subsequent killing of four alledged collaborators. Being among the very few foreign journalists witnessing the incident, Faas and Laurent decided to pool their photos together, and later, they also shared the World Press Photo award and the Pulitzer Prize.

German photographer Horst Faas (1933-2012) joined The Asssociated Press (AP) in 1956, becoming AP's chief photographer for Southeast Asia in 1962. He was based in Saigon, Vietnam, until 1974. His images of the Vietnam War son him several World Press Photo awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Faas is also famed for his work as a picture editor in Vietnam. In 1976, Faas moved to London to become AP's senior photo editor for Europe. He retired in 2004.

French photographer Michel Laurent (1946-1975) joined AP in 1962 and covered many conflicts around the world in the 1960s and early 1970s. In September 1973, he moved to the French photo agency Gamma, and one month later he went to the Middle East to photograph the Yom Kippur War on both the Egyptian and Syrian fronts. On 28 April 1975, he was killed outside Saigon while covering the final battle fought by the South Vietnamese 19th Infantry Divison, led by General Le Minh Dao, against Communist troops. Michel Laurent was the last photojournalist to be killed in the Vietnam War.