George Rodger and Life Magazine Photo-Journalism

This chapter looks at the coverage of the war by the Life photojournalist George Rodger. He focused initially, as did so many other journalists, on one of the most glamorous aspects of the campaign, the role of American pilots, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or “Flying Tigers” as they came to be known. Rodger did manage to take some action photos at one of the few successful battles, the recapture of Shwegyin. The photographic record of this battle raises important issues of the difficulties of working in tropical and jungle conditions, but also the question of whether any of the photographs involved reconstruction (faking) of events for the camera. This chapter also looks at the role of Life correspondent, Clare Boothe Luce, who, together with Rodger, photographed the meeting of General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek at Maymyo.