Pulitzer-winning photographer who shot iconic 'Burst of Joy' dies at age 99

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Slava Sal Veder best known for his picture of a US Air Force lieutenant colonel joyfully reuniting with his family after five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam died Aug 22 He was 99Veders family on Wednesday confirmed that the retired Associated Press photojournalist died in his sleep just eight days shy of his 100th birthday at his home in El Dorado County California outside of SacramentoThe San Francisco Bay Area native was 46 years old in March 1973 when he was sent to Travis Air Force Base for the arrival of Lt Col Robert L Stirm and other war prisoners returning from Vietnam Veder was in a crowded bullpen jockeying for pictures with dozens of other photographers when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Stirms four children begin to gallop toward their fatherYou could tell even at a distance what they were feeling It was all over them their faces the way they all broke into a run There was a surge of emotion from the crowd too Veder said in a 2015 interview with The GuardianUsing a makeshift darkroom set up in a womens bathroom on base Veder cranked out six images including Burst of Joy which won the 1974 Pulitzer in feature photography Veder noted that in the photograph Stirm has his back to the camera rendering him an everyman soldier returning to the undeniable joy and excitement on the faces of his childrenThe photo became a symbol of the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War But for Stirm it represented heartbreak as he had been handed a Dear John letter from his wife Loretta by a chaplain upon his release and the couple divorced a year later Stirm died in 2025Slava J Veder was born Aug 30 1926 in Berkeley California to Ivan and Anka Veder who had left Russia and taken the names John and Ann when they settled in the US He was their only childHe worked as a sports writer and news editor at several publications and in 1961 he was hired as a staff photographer by The Associated Press at its Sacramento bureau Later he transferred to the San Francisco office which is where he was based when he took the prizewinning photographFriends and former colleagues remembered Veder as a warm and humble person who loved to ice skate and sail He mentored younger photographers and always took time to ask the people around him how they were doing that dayHe was the first Pulitzer Prize winner I ever met like holy smokes said Brad Mangin a freelance sports photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area He was just the sweetest manEric Risberg a retired AP photographer who worked in San Francisco said Veder was a great mentor and teacherHe really really emphasized the marriage between pictures and words He encouraged me to dive deeper and get more into whats really the story Risberg saidAmong his many assignments Veder took photographs of the late Ronald Reagan when he was California governor university campus protests against the war in Vietnam the bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White in 1978Veder retired from AP in 1993This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever