writer, war correspondent, photojournalist 1915 – 1964
Summary
James Cobb Burke (1915 – 1964), LIFE photographer of the 1950’s to mid-1960’s reported on current events, historical subjects as well as natural splendors primarily in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. His photographs also include a wide range of world leaders and other luminaries of the time. His prolific work covered 4 continents and communicated the important events of the time to the world. The photographs of James Cobb Burke are ubiquitous today via the World Wide Web and are used by the media, the arts, scholars and academics to illustrate topics of historical significance. His photographs are also enjoyed as art.
Early Years
James Cobb Burke was born in Shanghai, China in 1915 of missionary parents William Blount Burke and Leila Gerdine. He spent his childhood in China and learned to speak fluent Shanghainese as well as developed an indelible love and admiration for Asia that influenced his work immensely and remained the foundation upon which his accomplishments were grounded. He returned to the United States as a young adult to attend secondary school and graduated from Emory University in 1932. Even as a young man, James Cobb Burke wrote and took photographs to document his extensive travel to and from China to visit his family. To him, travel was a way of life and an adventure. He kept voluminous scrapbooks and wrote a series of articles for his hometown newspaper – The Macon Telegraph. After his graduation from Emory he worked as a reporter for The Macon Telegraph and the St. Simon’s Star.
War Correspondent / Freelance Writer / Author
James Cobb Burke had a strong foundation as a writer and journalist before he joined Time-Life in 1951. Based on his credentials as a reporter for local newspapers, he joined the staff of the national newspaper, The Richmond Times Dispatch, in 1940. At the same time he began research on a book about the 50-year missionary career of his father, William Blount Burke. In 1942 he returned to China as a freelance correspondent to complete the research for the book, which was published by Farrar, Rinehart under the title – My Father in China. In 1942 he married Josephine Griffin the Women’s Editor at The Richmond Times Dispatch thus beginning a life-long partnership not only of love but also journalism.
During WWII he joined the armed forces as a war correspondent serving General Chennault’s 14th Air Force in China. He was the director of the OWI (Office of War Information) branch that he set up in Kunming, China and he traveled throughout China to report on the War in the Chinese theater. One notable mission was the purchase of horses in Tibet for the Chinese Army. After the War he continued freelance writing in Asia for various U.S. and European newspapers and magazines. In 1945 Josephine traveled by freighter with their son James to join him in China. Two years later, in 1947 their daughter Rosemary was born in Peking. James Cobb Burke covered the victorious Chinese Communist army as it entered the capital of Peking in 1949. The communists put him under house arrest, so he was forced to flee to the United States with his family. Despite his treatment he never lost his love or respect for China.
LIFE Magazine
In 1950 James Cobb Burke was assigned to India as a part-time correspondent for Time-Life and became their full-time Bureau Chief in New Delhi in 1951. This same year his second daughter, Jean, was born in Vrindavan, India. He covered historic and current events, such as visits by world leaders including the Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to Ceylon, the official visit to India and Afghanistan by the Premier of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev and the Friendship tour of India by Marshal Tito, President of Yugoslavia. He also covered world events such as the successful ascent of Everest from the point of view of Tenzing Norgay. In addition he wrote cultural and feature articles about India, including wildlife such as the White Tiger and working elephants, Hindu religious ceremonies and the movie queens of the nascent Bollywood including the much beloved Madhubala and Asha Parekh.
Hong Kong was the next posting, in 1957, for James Cobb Burke as Time Life Bureau Chief. From there he launched a vigorous application for a visa to China but this was not to be. During this period he covered events in the region, including the struggle for Independence of Indonesia and the evacuation of the Dutch from the newly independent island nation.
In 1959 James Cobb Burke was reassigned to Athens, Greece where he was Bureau Chief covering the Middle East and Africa. He wrote a pictorial essay on the struggle for Greek democracy, articles on Turkish and Syrian political upheavals and revolution in Africa. He photographed the Greek royal family – King Paul, Queen Frederika, Princesses Irene and Sophia as well as Prince Constantine. He also covered the Reverend Billy Graham’s mission through Africa. Cultural subjects included a photo essays of bullfighters in Spain with Ernest Hemingway and Hollywood movie stars Anthony Perkins and Greek Actress Melina Mercouri in Athens and Hydra on set for the film Phaedra. James Burke initiated his own stories including a photo essay on the artist enclave on the island of Hydra, capturing the then unknown poet/songwriter and singer Leonard Cohen and well known Australian writers George Johnson and Charmian Clift.
James Cobb Burke returned to his beloved Asia in 1960, as Bureau Chief in India. From there he covered 2,000,000 square miles of Asia including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Vietnam. He covered current events, such as the war in Vietnam, but also wrote photographic essays on history - the campaign of Alexander the Great in Asia, the culture of the Shang as displayed in bronze age sculptures and the iconic Bamian Buddhas (still existing in the 1960’s, but later destroyed in the Afghan conflict of the 1980’s). His final published essay centered on the wide expanse of the Himalaya mountain range through India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the time of his death in 1964 he was working on the project Moonglow to photograph the wonders of the world by moonlight.
His works open a window on a time before the Internet when a few professional photographers and journalists brought world events and natural wonders to a worldwide audience.
His works continue to be utilized decades after this death demonstrating their relevance over time. Getty Images and the Time Life archives constantly have requests for the use of the photographs by James Cobb Burke. Over 90 of his photos of the artist colony on Hydra in the 1960’s appear in a 2018 book by Dr. Paul Genoni and Dr. Tanya Dalziel, entitled Half The Perfect World – Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964 (Monash University Publishing 2018). James Cobb Burke’s photographs also appeared in the 2018 commemorative publication on the life of Billy Graham and the New York Times used his photographs in an essay about the Bollywood Movie Queen Madhubala.
Current works reveal glimpses into James Cobb Burkes’ personality and how he interacted with people to get his story. In Beyond Seven Years in Tibet, ( Labyrinth Press, Australia), Heinrich Harrar describes how James Burke quietly befriended him and helped him get his story about the Dalai Lama into LIFE magazine. A.E. Hotchner remembers James Burke during a LIFE photo shoot of famous Spanish Matador Antonio Dominguin, in his memoirs of Ernest Hemingway - Dear Papa, Dear Hotch (University of Missouri Press, 2005 ).
James Cobb Burkes’ extensive collection of photographs and writings are now housed at his alma mater, Emory University in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library . His body of work can also be found in the LIFE archives and Getty Images.
James Cobb Burke is remembered on the Journalists Memorial Wall at the Newseum in Washington D.C. dedicated to those brave and few photojournalists who have died in action.
“You can’t have fun at LIFE without a camera,” said James Cobb Burke