{"id":606125,"date":"2026-08-27T10:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/606125\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:52:15","slug":"sal-veder-photographer-who-captured-famous-burst-of-joy-image-dies-age-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/606125\/","title":{"rendered":"Sal Veder, Photographer Who Captured Famous ‘Burst of Joy’ Image, Dies Age 99"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A\u2018Burst of Joy\u2019 by Slava Veder \/ Associated Press. | Via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> <\/p>\n

The photographer who captured one of the most enduring images of the Vietnam War taken on American soil has died at age 99. <\/p>\n

Slava \u201cSal\u201d Veder took Burst of Joy on March 17, 1973, at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, while working for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n

The photograph shows Colonel Robert L. Stirm returning home after spending five years as a POW in North Vietnam. The moving photo shows his wife and four children running toward him with smiles etched on their faces. <\/p>\n

The image\u2019s emotion and story are self-evident: Stirm\u2019s daughter Lorrie, 15 at the time, is closest to her father, her arms outstretched and both feet off the floor. The years of anxiety and pain washed away in a joyful reunion. <\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press<\/a>, Veder himself commented that because Stirm had his back to the camera, it rendered him emblematic of all soldiers serving overseas and what it means to their families. <\/p>\n

Veder took the photo while surrounded by dozens of other photographers in a press pen; he told The Guardian<\/a> in 2015 that the emotion of the moment struck the gathered crowd of onlookers. <\/p>\n

Veder used a makeshift darkroom in a women\u2019s bathroom to quickly develop the photo, which won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 1974.<\/p>\n

Despite being part of a celebrated still image, Colonel Stirm, who died last year<\/a>, said he \u201ccan\u2019t help but feel ambivalent about it\u201d because his wife, Loretta, had already sent him a \u201cDear John\u201d letter revealing she had an affair while he was gone and asking for a divorce. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was very pleased to see my children \u2014 I loved them all and still do, and I know they had a difficult time \u2014 but there was a lot to deal with,\u201d Stirm told Smithsonian magazine<\/a> in 2005. <\/p>\n

Veder joined AP in 1961 at its Sacramento bureau, having previously been a writer and news editor at several publications. He was later transferred to San Francisco, which is where he took Burst of Joy. <\/p>\n

He retired in 1993 and lived in El Dorado County. He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Burst of Joy\u2019 by Slava Veder \/ Associated Press. | Via Wikimedia Commons The photographer who captured one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-606125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}