Photographer Research: Lucian Perkins

Lucian began photographing in collage at the University of Texas. After graduating, he returned to the University of Texas to teach. While teaching, he studied photography under Garry Winogrand. After this, he took an internship at The Washington Post. He stayed there for 27 years. Shortly after joining, his interest in shooting international conflicts grew. He won "News Photographer of the Year" for his shooting in Russia, plus some fashion photography. Related subjects, no? He also won a Pulitzer Prize for a four year project on the effects of poverty and crime on a family living in Washington D.C. He won a second for a portfolio of Kosovo refugees. The Kosovo Conflict was a very personal time in my life. My father was in the Air Force during this, and he was sent over to fly refueling tankers. Because this photographer shot the conflict, it was one of the reasons I selected him to research. He tends to focus on people, mainly refugees and military members. He now works as a freelance photographer in D.C.

This image is the one which made him famous. It is of a refugee boy staring out of the back of a bus. This image helped him win a Pulitzer, and characterizes the Kosovo Conflict in a picture. The child has nowhere to go, because his home is destroyed or he is being hunted. The pure hopelessness in the child shows the state of Kosovo after Milosevic and and the NATO bombing. From the looks of it, he is trying to break out of this decending spiral the war pushed him into. It is not working. It is a true war photograph. It shows the actual face of war, no propoganda what-so-ever.

This is one of the oddest photographs I have ever commented on. Blinky, from pacman walks down the street on Halloween. Sounds like something which would show up at my family's Halloween party. I can see nothing wrong with the composition. While this image may not relate to th overall topic of most of his images, which is war, it's just funny.

This is one of the photographs which allowed him to be accepted as an intern for The Washington Post. The woman was one of the first group of female seniors in the United States Navel Academy. This image shows the senior woman chewing out a group of freshman, in this case for messing up the menu. Lucian was able to take a shot at a very historic point for the academy. The first co-ed class in the 132 years of the school, it was a turning point for women in the military. The composition is perfect. It must be easy to shoot stock-still recruits in white uniforms. They look almost scared.