About This Image

Time Inc. Picture Collection stamp on verso. From LIFE photo essay #44229. Bristol (November 16, 1908 – August 4, 1997) best known for his work in LIFE  also had work that appeared in TIME, FORTUNE, Sunset and National Geographic magazines. Bristol was born and raised in Whittier, California, graduated from Belmont High School and attended the Art Center of Los Angeles. In 1933 he moved to San Francisco to do commercial photography where he met Ansel Adams who lived near his studio near Union Square. There he also met other members of the famed "Group f/64" including Edward Weston, Dorthea Lange and Imogen Cunningham. He started working for LIFE as a freelancer in 1937 and remained a freelancer through most of his relationship with the magazine except for three brief periods while on staff from 10/1/1937 - 12/31/1938 and while under contract from 2/1/1940 - 7/31/1940 and again 5/1/1941 – 10/31/1941. He photographed migrant farm workers in 1938 with John Steinbeck influencing Steinbeck's work, The Grapes of Wrath. In 1941 he was recruited to the U.S. Naval Aviation Photographic Unit as one of the few photographers under the command of Captain Edward Steichen, documenting WWII in South Africa, North Africa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Japan. After the war he and his family settled in Japan. Following his wife's suicide in 1956 he destroyed the negatives in his possession. According to his website, his remaining photographs were packed into footlockers, stored and left untouched for nearly thirty years until his 15-year old son from a later marriage began a discussion with him about The Grapes of Wrath. Fortunately LIFE retained negatives and prints of work he had done for them and his work is in the collections of the Getty and Los Angeles County Museum.

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