Photojournalist Sal Veder, whose photograph of a returning Vietnam War prisoner became one of the most recognizable images of the era, has died at 99. He died in his sleep at his California home on August 22, according to his family. He would have turned 100 in early September.
Veder’s best-known photograph, “Burst of Joy,” captured Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm arriving at Travis Air Force Base on March 17, 1973, after nearly five years as a prisoner of war. The image shows Stirm’s family running toward him during the reunion. Veder received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for the photograph.
The emotional complexity of the image became apparent only later: Stirm had received a letter from his wife ending their marriage shortly before his return. Veder spent more than three decades with The Associated Press, joining the organization in 1961 and retiring in 1993. During his career, he photographed an extraordinary range of political and cultural figures and events, including Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Patty Hearst, Huey Newton, Jesse Jackson and Dianne Feinstein.
While “Burst of Joy” defined his career for many viewers, Veder’s larger body of work documented the political turbulence and social change of postwar America. His photographs remain an important record of a period when newspaper photojournalism could place a single frame before millions of readers and turn an otherwise fleeting moment into history.