Leonard McCombe

Leonard James McCombe (1 June 1923 – 2015) was a Manx-born American war photographer and photojournalist who worked for Picture Post and Life.

McCombe was born on 1 June 1923 on the Isle of Man, and grew up in Port Erin.^[1]

He became a professional photographer working on the Isle of Man at the age of 16.^[1] He moved to England to work for Picture Post from 1943 to 1945, covering the allied advance across Europe to Berlin.^[2][1]

In 1941, he joined the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) as a junior member. He became an Associate^{[n 1]} of the RPS in 1943 and a Fellow^{[n 2]} in 1944. At the time he was probably "the youngest Fellow in the history of the Royal Photographic Society".^[3]

He moved to the United States and started working for Life at the age of 22 in 1945.^[3] He continued to work for the magazine until its closure in 1972.^[4]

While working for Life, McCombe produced his most notable work, "Career Girl: Her Life and Problems" (3 May 1948), which documented the life of 23-year-old Gwyned Filling, "a young college girl trying to make a start on an advertising career in New York".^[5] McCombe's photograph for Life (22 August 1949) of cowboy Clarence Hailey Long inspired advertising agency Leo Burnett to create the Marlboro Man advertising campaign.^[2]

Of his process, McCombe stated:

This is the way it usually happens. You come in cold to an unfamiliar situation, where nobody knows you. The scenes you had imagined often turn out to be non-existent. "What's going on?" you ask yourself. "Where's my story?" It's like being on the outside of a shop window looking in. Somehow, you have to break through the glass.^[6]

Junto con su esposa, Gertrude, McCombe fundó la Fundación Gertrude y Leonard McCombe para el bienestar y el tratamiento del cáncer. ^{[ n 3 ]} A Gertrude le diagnosticaron cáncer de ovario en 2014. Mientras cuidaba a su esposa, la salud de Leonard empeoró, con sospecha de mesotelioma . ^{[ 1 ]} Falleció en 2015 y Gertrude en 2018. ^{[ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 1 ]}