AP Photographer James Pringle
James “Jim” Pringle wrote in 1948, “You know, since I left Ireland in 1943, I always wanted excitement and there is no doubt that I got even more than I bargained for when I joined the AP as a photographer.”
Pringle stayed with the AP for over 25 years and covered numerous conflicts; from the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in World War II, to the Korean War and discord across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Later based in Rome, between conflicts he also photographed three Popes, various film stars, royalty and Olympic Games. Below is just a taster of his incredible career.
AP photographer Jim Pringle looks at a hole in the windscreen of an Associated Press jeep in Jerusalem, Feb. 23, 1948. Pringle was just getting into the jeep when the bullet came through. (AP Photo)
The following contains excerpts from James Pringle’s obituary printed in AP World vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 1970, by Jim Long et al.
ROME - AP Photographer James Matthew Joseph Pringle, an Irish master of action photography who had pictured war and revolution in the Eastern Hemisphere for a quarter of a century, died Feb. 19. He was 51.
In 1943 Pringle, then 25, left Ireland. He went to London and joined the Associated Press, and his first AP job was photographing bomb destruction and fires of the Battle of Britain.
Then, dressed in U.S. Army uniform Pringle carried his camera – and his Irish passport in which he had lifelong pride – across France and Germany. Traveling with U.S. military units, he recorded war scenes from Normandy’s pockmarked beaches to Germany’s bomb-tattered cities.
He was the first photographer to record the horrors of Dachau internment camp.
An American gun crew of the Seventh Army pounds the retreating German army with heavy field artillery in the newly captured town of Rechtenbach, Germany, March 27, 1945. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
A U.S. soldier stands guard at a bridge on the river Main, leading to the bombed and burnt out town of Würzburg, Germany, April 14, 1945. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Associated Press photographer Jimmy Pringle with his camera at the ready, at a Thunderbolt Station in Southern England, Dec. 18, 1944. (AP Photo)
Dachau prisoners cheer their liberators of the 42nd Rainbow Division of the 7th U.S. Army as they wave from behind the wire fence, at the concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, May 1945. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Prisoners crowd the edge of the moat and wire fencing encompassing the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, May 3, 1945, as they shout greetings to their liberators, the 42nd Rainbow Division of the U.S. Army. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Marshal Hermann Goering photographed during his interview with the press at Augsburg, Germany, May 11, 1945. (AP Photo/James Pringle, Wartime Picture Pool)
As World War II ended, Pringle began moving from one trouble spot to another, catching close up views of war, revolution and resulting tragedy.
Pringle was regarded as not only one of AP’s finest photographers but also one of its most legendary personalities. There was no end to stories of his bravery in hazardous situations.
Pringle seemed to enjoy danger. Usually he came through with some amusing remark when things were at their worst.
His most commonly quoted wisecrack is the one he made as bullets flew about him during the 1958 U.S. Marine landing in Lebanon: “They can’t hit me – I carry an Irish passport”.
He survived two plane crashes – one in England, the other in Korea. Four times he was wounded by shrapnel.
One injury in Korea called for 40 stiches by a surgeon. And in Korea he also contracted tuberculosis.
Civilians walk through the debris on Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem, following the explosions, Feb. 22, 1948. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
An Israeli soldier, armed with a sten gun, picks her way through the shattered walls, in the old city of Jerusalem, July 20, 1948. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
On the cover of The AP World, Jan-Feb 1951, AP photographer Jim Pringle gifts candy to a local child in Korea. At left is a U.S. soldier, whom like Pringle is originally from County Galway. (AP Corporate Archives)
Demonstrators surround burning office furniture tossed from nearby Independence Party headquarters in Trieste, Italy, Nov. 6, 1953. The Independence Party organization advocates a free status for the disputed Adriatic city, as opposed to protestors who demand Italian autonomy. (AP Photo/James Pringle)
Tunisian guerrillas use a tree and embankment for cover as they stand guard on a road near Bizerte, Tunisia, Feb. 22, 1958, during a blockade of a French military base. Tunisian action followed the French air bombing of a town on the Algerian border. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Lebanese government troops advance past a barricade in Beirut, Lebanon, June 25, 1958, after fighting had broken out. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
A motorist's view of a street in Baghdad, Iraq, Feb.12, 1963, where tanks stand by to prevent further outbreaks of fighting, following the coup and overthrow of Premier Abd al-Karim Qasim. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Rockets fired from a Turkish jet hit Cypriot ships during an engagement off the coast of Cyprus, Aug. 9, 1964. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Yugoslavia’s Prime Minister Marshall Josip Broz Tito, right, plays chess with Fiorello LaGuardia, director-general of U.N.R.R.A, on Tito’s train after a tour of the Lika District, Aug. 1, 1946. At extreme left is Tito’s son, Zarko Leon. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
A Turkish soldier kisses the hand of Ismet Inonu, the 75-year-old former Turkish president and leader of the Republican People's Party, as the soldiers maintain guard duty outside his home in Ankara, Turkey, May 31, 1960. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Fishermen of Mamaia on the shores of the Black Sea, Romania, dry their nets, Dec. 11, 1946, after the day's catch. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Pringle also shone on assignments of the peaceful sort. He photographed three popes, in residence and on their travels; also numerous heads of state and other dignitaries as they traveled about the world. He was assigned to several Olympic Games.
On one of his last assignments he acted as pool photographer for the world press at the wedding of Aristotle and Jacqueline Onassis.
Jim Pringle would be pleased to hear us report that he was a good amateur boxer; that regardless of where he was, and under what circumstances, he always managed to wear something green on St. Patrick’s Day.
Max Angst battles for control of the speeding four-man Swiss bobsled as snow sprays over the banked edge of the chute, on Italy's Mount Tofana, Feb. 4, 1956, during the Winter Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Billie Jean Moffitt, (later King), is shown in action against Yola Ramirez at the All-England Lawn Tennis Championship in Wimbledon, England, June 29, 1961. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Florence Chadwick takes refreshment from her pilot boat during her swim to France, Sept. 11, 1951. Chadwick became the first woman in history to swim the English Channel both ways having swam from France to England in 1950. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Britain's royal family members from left: Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Princess Royal, watching the events at the horse trials in Badminton, England, April 26, 1957. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh visit the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, Dec. 7, 1955. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Actor George Sanders kisses his wife Zsa Zsa Gabor on her arrival at the Rome Ciampino Airport, Feb. 16, 1953. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Gina Lollobrigida watches President Kennedy on a television set in her Rome villa, July 23, 1962, during a live telecast from the U.S. to Europe via the Telstar satellite. The Italian actress left the set of her present movie to watch the president’s news conference. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Actor Kirk Douglas in character during the filming of ‘Ulysses’, June 11, 1953. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Student priests hurl snowballs in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Feb. 9, 1965. The area was hit by its worst snowstorm since 1796, as the snow reached 10 inches after falling for almost 16 hours. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Pope Paul VI salutes a crowd estimated at 200,000 as he is carried on portable throne through St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, March 29, 1964. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Duke Ellington, waving his hat in hand, is greeted by a host of fans who cheered and played his favorite tunes as he left the Central Station in Milan, Italy, May 5, 1950. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)
Aristotle Onassis and his new wife, Jacqueline Kennedy with her daughter Caroline, walk back to his yacht after their wedding on Scorpios Island, Greece, Oct. 20, 1968. (AP Photo/Jim Pringle)