John Paul Filo (; born August 21, 1948) is an American photographer whose picture of 14-year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio screaming while kneeling over the dead body of 20-year-old Jeffrey Miller, one of the victims of the Kent State shootings, won him the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

in 1971. At the time, Filo was both a

photojournalism Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

student at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

, and staffer of the ''Valley Daily News'', which became the '' Valley News Dispatch'' and is now a satellite paper for the '' Greensburg Tribune-Review''.

Biography

After winning the

while working for the '' Valley Daily News'' (a Gannett paper) of the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

suburb of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, he continued his career in photojournalism, rapidly finding work at the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, the ''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'', and as a picture editor at the '' Baltimore Evening Sun''. He eventually rose to a picture editing job at the weekly news magazine ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

''. He is now head of photography for CBS.

Taking the picture

The Kent State shooting by members of the Ohio National Guard occurred at

in the city of Kent, Ohio on May 4, 1970, and resulted in the deaths of four students. At the time John Filo was in the university student photography lab when the shots rang out. He quickly ran outside and below recalls what happened: To take the picture Filo used a Nikkormat camera with Tri-X film and most of the exposures were 1/500 between 5.6 and f 8 depending on whether the sun was behind a cloud or not.

Altered photo

In the early 1970s, an anonymous editor airbrushed the fence post above Mary Ann Vecchio's head out of Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Since then, the altered photo has circulated and has been reprinted in many magazines. Numerous publications, including ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' (Nov. 6, 1972, p. 23; Jan. 7, 1980, p. 45) and ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'' (May 2, 1977, p. 37; April 30, 1990, p. 117), have used the altered image without knowing it.

Meeting with Mary Ann Vecchio

In 1995, Filo met Mary Ann Vecchio for the first time, when both were scheduled to appear at an

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the shootings. The two met again on the Kent State University campus, at the 39th commemoration in May 2009, where they both spoke.

References

External links

with John Filo
by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s {{DEFAULTSORT:Filo, John 1948 births Living people People from Harrison Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania American photojournalists Journalists from Pennsylvania Kent State shootings Kent State University alumni Pulitzer Prize for Photography winners 20th-century American journalists American male journalists