Free Spirit in a Troubled World

John Phillips was born in Bouira, Algeria, on November 13, 1914. French by birth, with a British father and an American mother, his early childhood was spent in an Arab world before his family moved to Paris and then to Nice. In 1936 he was hired by Life, and his picture stories for the magazine over almost three decades helped to shape modern photojournalism. He resigned from Life's staff in the early 1950s and went on to work with Jacques Tati, the French film-maker, on M. Hulot's Holiday and other films. Settling in New York City, Phillips published several books of reportage, among them A Will To Survive (1976), about Israel, Yugoslav Story (1984), It Happened in Our Lifetime (1985), and in 1994, Poet and Pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He has been decorated in France with the titles of Chevalier and Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide and published in many newspapers and magazines, including Fortune, Time, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph Magazine, Epoca, Corriere della Sera, and Paris-Match. John Phillips died in New York City on August 22, 1996, shortly before the publication of this book.