(L-R) LIFE photographer Paul Shutzer and LIFE associate editor Michael Mok on assignment. (Photo by Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
As a child he considered becoming a painter or a lawyer, following his father and brothers, but at 22, Paul Schutzer (1930-1967) yielded to his childhood love of photography. He entered the professional ranks as an errand boy and shipping clerk for the Freelance Photographers Guild, and managed to secure a few assignments. Schutzer was only 26 when he joined the LIFE staff. He had a knack for taking pictures of powerful people—Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy—and yet he said, “It’s the quiet things that happen around us every day that are the really important things. A good camera story need not be dramatic, but it must be entertaining and a personal adventure for the viewer.” That’s certainly so, but Schutzer never shied from dangerous subjects; in fact, one colleague said he had “almost too much courage.” Schutzer was killed on assignment for LIFE covering the first day of the Six-Day War when an Israeli half-track in which he was riding was struck by a 57mm shell.
—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers
President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline in box at his Inaugural Ball. (Photo by Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
American soldiers of 7th Marines landing on the beaches of Cape Batangan during the Vietnam War. (Photo by Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
Freedom Riders Julia Aaron & David Dennis sitting on board interstate bus as they are escorted by two Mississippi National Guardsmen holding bayonets, on way from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo by Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
