--- description: Paying tribute to long-time LIFE magazine photographer John Dominis, one of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century. title: John Dominis: Celebrating the Work of a Master Photographer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd337a50a29ae0d78/698761ac35ba6fb37bc048a2/john-dominis-09.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Photographer Spotlight: John Dominis by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 20, 2013 7:05 PM CUT  Dancer Jacques D'Amboise plays with his children near his home in Washington state, 1962. Dancer Jacques D'Amboise plays with his children near his home in Washington state, 1962.John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 20, 2013 7:05 PM CUT Some photographers are so skilled at covering a specific topic, or through the years have created so distinctive a feel in their pictures, that it’s possible to encounter an image—even an image one has never seen before—and say with something like certainty, “That’s a Leifer” or “That’s a Halsman” or “That’s a Nachtwey.” Familiarity with a recognizable style, meanwhile, hardly breeds contempt; a master can find countless ways to keep his or her vision fresh—even if the subject matter or the visual vocabulary remains relatively constant across decades. Andreas Feininger might photograph the Brooklyn Bridge a hundred times, but his artistry and technical virtuosity makes it new each and every time. Then there are great photographers whose work is so phenomenally varied—a uniform, unbroken excellence the only common thread running throughout—that every new shot one encounters might have been made by a different individual. John Dominis is such a photographer, and the photos presented here serve as a testament to the man’s enviable ability to see and to capture _anything_. Born in Los Angeles in 1921, Dominis was majoring in cinematography at USC when he left school in 1943 to enlist in the Air Force. After the war, he freelanced as a photographer for a number of national publications, including LIFE, and was put on staff in 1950 when he volunteered to cover the Korean War.  Photographer John Dominis during filming of western movie "The Undefeated." John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Over the next two-plus decades, he traveled the globe, working in Southeast Asia and the American Southwest, Africa and Europe, Mexico and New York City. He covered six Olympics, including the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, where he made his famous picture of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium, their gloved fists raised in a Black Power salute (slide 26 here). He was one of the first LIFE photographers to report from Vietnam. He covered Woodstock. He created what many consider the definitive photo essays on pop culture icons like Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen. He photographed big cats (lions, leopards, cheetahs) in Africa and he photographed the three Kennedy brothers—John, Robert and Edward—separately, early in their careers. His 1965 photograph of Mickey Mantle tossing his helmet in disgust after a terrible at-bat is one of the most eloquent pictures ever made of a great athlete in decline and—just to keep everyone guessing—John Dominis also made some of the most memorable images of _food_ ever to grace the pages of LIFE. “The great thing about working with LIFE,” Dominis once said, “was that I was given all the support and money and time, whatever was required, to do almost any kind of work I wanted to do, anywhere in the world. It was like having a grant, a Guggenheim grant, but permanently.” Dominis has been remarkably candid about his work, and no more so than when discussing how he managed to make one of the most famous, and controversial, shots of his career: the bristling-with-energy picture of a leopard and a baboon (slide 25) facing off in what one immediately imagines—rightly, as it turns out—is a fight to the death. In John Loengard’s terrific 1998 book, [**_LIFE Photographers: What They Saw_**](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Photographers-What-They-Saw/dp/0821225189/ "undefined"), Dominis says of that photo: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- His encounters with humans were (usually) less fraught, but always involved the same degree of preparation. Of his remarkable series of photos of Steve McQueen, and how he got the notoriously private and solitary actor to relax with a photographer around, Dominis told LIFE.com: --- > “” --- Then there’s Woodstock, an event that opened the eyes of a man who’d seen everything: “I really had a great time,” Dominis told LIFE.com, decades after the fact. “I was much older than those kids, but I felt like I was their age. They smiled at me, offered me pot. . . . You didn’t expect to see a bunch of kids so nice; you’d think they’d be uninviting to an older person. But no—they were just great! “I worked at LIFE for 25 years, and worked everywhere and saw everything, and I’ve told people every year since the Woodstock festival that it was one of the greatest events I ever covered.” Dominis became photo editor of _People_ magazine in the mid-1970s and was an editor at _Sports Illustrated_ for a few years, as well (1978 – 1982). But it was his work for LIFE in the 1950s, ’60s and into the early ’70s that not only defined his peripatetic career, but produced some of the most memorable and moving images of the 20th century. \[NOTE: John Dominis died on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, at his home in New York City. Dominis was 92 years old. Farewell, John. We won’t see your like again.\] _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_ Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined").  Southern Pacific locomotive using a plow to clear snow from tracks in Donner Pass, five miles west of Soda Springs, Calif., 1949. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Army unit patrolling at night in Korea, 1951. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A rifleman dashes uphill to take cover from enemy fire, Korea, 1951. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  New York Giants star Willie Mays, 1954. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mothers grieve for their sons killed during a student demonstration, South Korea, 1960. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A boat girl rows a sampan across the Perfume River, Vietnam, 1961. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mountain tribal village, Vietnam, 1961. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Navy air operations on the aircraft carrier Independence, 1961. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Dancer Jacques D'Amboise plays with his children near his home in Washington state, 1962. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy shakes hands from a train window, Japan, 1962. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  President John F. Kennedy in the midst of a ticker tape parade during a state visit to Mexico, 1962. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Robert F. Kennedy with Japanese children, 1962. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Sen. Edward Kennedy (right) with an old friend, Jack Dixon, in his office during his first year in the Senate, 1963. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Steve McQueen with his wife Neile at home in California, 1963. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Steve McQueen at home, 1963. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A trout "flies" out of a bed of almonds in preparation for Trout Amandine, 1964. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The Beatles, 1964. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Mickey Mantle tosses his helmet in disgust after a terrible at-bat, New York, 1965. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Frank Sinatra in rehearsal, Las Vegas, 1965. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Outside the presidential suite at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in 1965, Frank Sinatra says goodbye to his mother, Dolly (left), and his father, Martin (center). They visited from New Jersey during the winter months. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Argentinian matambre, a slice of beef rolled with vegetables and chilies, 1966. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A pair of lions in the wild in Africa, 1966. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A leopard about to kill a baboon, 1966. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right), after winning gold and bronze Olympic medals in the 200m, respectively, raise their fists in a Black Power salute, Mexico, 1968\. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Dustin Hoffman kisses his wife, Anne Byrne, in the back of a taxi, New York, 1969. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  John Wayne during a break in the filming of The Undefeated, 1969. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  John Wayne during filming of The Undefeated, 1969. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Robert Redford exercises one of his eight saddle horses on his ranch in Utah, 1970. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The 90-meter ski jump at the 1972 Olympics in Japan. John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3524708/photographer-spotlight-john-dominis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3524708/photographer-spotlight-john-dominis/"},"headline":"Photographer Spotlight: John Dominis","datePublished":"2013-12-20T19:05:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:21.184Z","description":"Paying tribute to long-time LIFE magazine photographer John Dominis, one of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century.","url":"https://time.com/3524708/photographer-spotlight-john-dominis/","keywords":["John F. 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