Join us for a final evening of “I SAW A 60-Year Journey Around the World” with David Burnett Attending In Person

For nearly 70 years, David Burnett has weaved together a breathtaking tapestry of world history.

Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia, campaigns in the Democratic primary for his party’s nomination to the presidency. New Hampshire, USA, February 1976

He has photographed every American President since JFK in 1963 and produced a unique collection of portraits of the last 12 occupants of the White House. Curious about the unpredictable events that shape the world beyond America, he authored powerful stories on military and political conflicts, on man-made and natural tragedies across all continents from the Vietnam War to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, to the aftermaths of 9/11 and hurricane Katrina.

Leo Jereb, Veteran of the 4th Infantry Division on Utah Beach where he landed on D-Day, Normandy, France, 1979.
© David Burnett (Contact Press Images)

Since 1974, he revisits the Beaches of Normandy and connects with American veterans who landed in France on June 6, 1944. Mankind’s ceaseless attempts to defy gravity remains an overriding theme as shown by his work on the exploration of space—from the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969 to that of Atlantis 40 years later—and on the achievements by athletes participating in Summer Olympics.

Spectators gather along the beach across from the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of Apollo 11, the first manned rocket to land on the Moon. Titusville, Florida, USA, July 16, 1969

FYI, he has covered all 10 games since Los Angeles in 1984. Not surprisingly, Burnett, the co-founder of Contact Press Images intends to visit France in 2024, with his usual array of multi-format cameras, and attend both the 80th commemoration of D-Day at Omaha Beach, followed by the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris.

Triple Jump, Women, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1996

Born in 1946, Burnett grew up in Salt Lake City, where he began taking pictures for his high school yearbook.

In 1968, upon graduation from Colorado College in Political Science, he began a long relationship with Life and Time magazines.  It was for the latter that, in 1969, as a 22-year-old intern, he covered Apollo X, XI, and XII, and became forever enamored of the space program.  In 1970-1972, he covered the war in Vietnam before joining the Paris-based Gamma Agency for a couple of years. In 1976, he co-founded Contact Press Images, the international photojournalism agency, which distributes his work around the world.  An award-winning photographer to which Reporters Without Borders devoted one of their “Freedom of the Press” albums, is the author or co-author of several acclaimed books, including: Iran, 44 Days and the Remaking of the World; Soul Rebel, An intimate portrait of Bob Marley, and most recently in France, Septembre au Chili—1971/1973.