--- title: The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography description: David Douglas Duncan, the LIFE photographer who died on June 7 at 102, was in Tokyo in 1950 when the Korean War began canonical: https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/ author: John Loengard article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-14T10:15:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:34:12.986Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography og:description: Remembering the life of a celebrated photographer og:url: https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt814c57de2af3c219/698932fcbc6cfc33fe3e635e/david-douglas-duncan-photographer-death.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: David Douglas Duncan Photographer Death og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography twitter:description: Remembering the life of a celebrated photographer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt814c57de2af3c219/698932fcbc6cfc33fe3e635e/david-douglas-duncan-photographer-death.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography by [John Loengard](https://time.com/author/john-loengard/) ## John Loengard Jun 14, 2018 10:15 AM UTC  Headshot portrait of American photographer David Douglas Duncan as he holds a camera, Miami, Florida, April 1969. Headshot portrait of American photographer David Douglas Duncan as he holds a camera, Miami, Florida, April 1969.Ray Fisher—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty by [John Loengard](https://time.com/author/john-loengard/) ## John Loengard Jun 14, 2018 10:15 AM UTC David Douglas Duncan, the LIFE photographer who died on June 7 at 102, was in Tokyo in 1950 when the Korean War began. He had been a Marine officer during World War II, so his pictures of war had the breathtaking clarity and intimacy of a lover. He was not a lover of war but of the Marine Corps. He knew what a Marine was doing on the front line, what he was thinking and why–and he showed it. His pictures were collected in the best-selling book This Is War! The photos have no captions. None are needed. It wasn’t just war. He was alone with Richard Nixon the night Nixon was writing his acceptance speech for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. He made some of the best pictures of Nixon I’ve ever seen–unguarded and understandable. Our perception of a subject often depends on a photographer recording a telling gesture. He did that with Nixon. DDD brought you into the room and, as he did in all his pictures, brought you along on his adventures. _Loengard is a photographer and was a picture editor for LIFE magazine_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/"},"headline":"The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography","datePublished":"2018-06-14T10:15:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:34:12.986Z","description":"David Douglas Duncan, the LIFE photographer who died on June 7 at 102, was in Tokyo in 1950 when the Korean War began","url":"https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/","keywords":["Life","photography","Korean War"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt814c57de2af3c219/698932fcbc6cfc33fe3e635e/david-douglas-duncan-photographer-death.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Loengard","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-loengard/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt814c57de2af3c219/698932fcbc6cfc33fe3e635e/david-douglas-duncan-photographer-death.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"David Douglas Duncan Photographer Death","caption":"David Douglas Duncan Photographer Death","creditText":"Ray Fisher—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5311960/david-douglas-duncan-obituary/","name":"The Power Of David Douglas Duncan’s Photography"}}]}] ```