During the month of March, Sound celebrates Women’s History Month, placing a spotlight on the accomplishments of women throughout history who have made an impact on society. This week, we recognize Dickey Chapelle, intrepid, wartime photographer.
Photojournalist Dickey Chapelle Risked Her Life in War Zones for Over 20 Years
1918 – 1965
Shortly after the bombs left Pearl Harbor devastated in 1941, Dickey Chapelle’s career as a photojournalist and war correspondent was born. Chapelle was one of the first female foreign correspondents to cover World War II and later the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native covered armed conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and countries around the world. Her massive amount of work included 6,000 prints, nearly 17,700 negatives, and almost 6,500 transparencies.
During her impressive career, the fearless Chapelle’s work appeared in Reader’s Digest, National Geographic, Look, Saturday Evening Post, and other publications. She penned two autobiographies, Trouble I’ve Asked For (1960) and What’s a Woman Doing Here? (1961) Dickey’s life was often at risk and tragically she was killed by a booby trap explosion in 1965 in Vietnam. She became the first newswoman and fourth member of the American press corps to die while reporting the war.
You can see Chapelle’s work from Vietnam at www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=829 . She is also featured in the documentary No Job for a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII.