The Max Desfor Photographs and Papers

It is our great pleasure to announce that the Max Desfor Photographs and Papers is now processed and open for research. The collection guide is available here . Max Desfor was an Associated Press photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 in the general photography category for his coverage of the Korean War in a photo, “Flight of Refugees Across Wrecked Bridge in Korea,” taken in 1950, of Korean refugees fleeing along the twisted girders of a bombed bridge.

Desfor was born in New York City on November 8, 1913. He studied at Brooklyn College in New York. He started his career at the Associated Press in 1933 as a darkroom assistant. In 1938, Desfor became staff photographer at the Associated Press bureau in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1939 he joined the Associated Press staff in Washington, D.C. In 1942 he was promoted to photo editor and in 1944 he was promoted to war correspondent and assigned to photograph Admiral Nimitz’s command in the Pacific Ocean area.

This collection contains photographs taken by Max Desfor while he was employed with the Associated Press from 1940 to 1968. There are also newspaper clippings, personal correspondence, business correspondence and other files dating from 1942 to 2008, as well as numerous photographs and negatives dating from 1936 to 2008. Also included in the collection are many photographs and negatives dated from 1936 to 2008 documenting Desfor’s experiences in Korea, Japan, India and many other places, both foreign and domestic. Some are photographs Desfor took for AP jobs while others are personal. There are some famous faces included such as Mahatma Gandhi and Princess Elizabeth. The collection also contains videocassettes and CDs ranging in dates from 1985 to 2008, although most of them are undated, as well as slides from 1969 to 1972. The dates for the entire collection range from 1936 to 2008, and it totals 9.5 linear feet.

Caption accompanying photo: GANDHI FASTS FOR PEACE: Wearing a loin cloth and shawl, Mohandas K. Gandhi squats before a microphone in New Delhi, India, to deliver prayer meeting discourse during second day of his fast to force communal peace in India. The 78-year-old Indian patriot ended his 121-hour fast on Jan. 18 when he won a pledge of harmony from religious leaders of India. Date: 1/22/48 for the Associated Press

This is a unique collection for the SCRC at N.C. State and will be of interest to a variety of researchers, particularly those interested in photography in general and those interested in news photography of the mid-20th century of war zones like those in Korea and Japan. For more information about the collection, please consult the collection guide .