George Silk with his camera. (Photo by George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
“I left school to punch cows and I left them to take pictures,” said the New Zealand-born George Silk (1916-2004). He joined the Australian Army as a photographer in World War II. Rommel’s troops in North Africa captured him, but he escaped. While in New Guinea (following the Kokoda Trail for 700 miles on foot), Silk shot a picture of a blinded soldier that the Aussies tried to suppress; LIFE, however, printed it. He finished the war as a LIFE photographer in the Pacific. Silk said he felt ashamed not to be fighting, “so I drove myself to show the folks at home, as best I could, how the soldiers lived and died.” His empathy came across whether shooting fishermen or athletes. A boatsman himself, he became the magazine’s expert on sailing. And on cold weather: Silk visited the North Pole twice and once shot the America’s Cup races atop a 90-foot mast.
Children in Halloween costumes running together. (Photo by George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
United States track athletes taking hurdles at the men’s 1960 United States Olympic trials for track and field. (Photo by George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
Silk modified a “strip” camera for such as the track meet above. But its development took a different route. As Silk told American Photographer, he “took the camera home and had my kids run by it and then under a blanket in the garage, I developed a piece of film this long (arms fully spread) and when I held it up and looked at the spooky image I said, ‘That’s Halloween!’ [The holiday was coming up shortly.] So I got color film and got the kids… to put on their costumes and run by the camera.”
—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers
The sailboat Nefertiti competing in the America’s Cup trials. (Photo by George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
