Sal Veder, Photographer Who Captured Famous ‘Burst of Joy’ Image, Dies Age 99

The photographer who captured one of the most enduring images of the Vietnam War taken on American soil has died at age 99.

Slava “Sal” Veder took Burst of Joy on March 17, 1973, at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, while working for the Associated Press.

The photograph shows Colonel Robert L. Stirm returning home after spending five years as a POW in North Vietnam. The moving photo shows his wife and four children running toward him with smiles etched on their faces.

The image’s emotion and story are self-evident: Stirm’s daughter Lorrie, 15 at the time, is closest to her father, her arms outstretched and both feet off the floor. The years of anxiety and pain washed away in a joyful reunion.

According to the Associated Press, Veder himself commented that because Stirm had his back to the camera, it rendered him emblematic of all soldiers serving overseas and what it means to their families.

Veder took the photo while surrounded by dozens of other photographers in a press pen; he told The Guardian in 2015 that the emotion of the moment struck the gathered crowd of onlookers.

Veder used a makeshift darkroom in a women’s bathroom to quickly develop the photo, which won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 1974.

Despite being part of a celebrated still image, Colonel Stirm, who died last year, said he “can’t help but feel ambivalent about it” because his wife, Loretta, had already sent him a “Dear John” letter revealing she had an affair while he was gone and asking for a divorce.

“I was very pleased to see my children — I loved them all and still do, and I know they had a difficult time — but there was a lot to deal with,” Stirm told Smithsonian magazine in 2005.

Veder joined AP in 1961 at its Sacramento bureau, having previously been a writer and news editor at several publications. He was later transferred to San Francisco, which is where he took Burst of Joy.

He retired in 1993 and lived in El Dorado County. He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.