{{short description|American photographer (born 1948)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Infobox person | image = Johnfilo.jpg | caption = Filo in 2008 | birth_name = John Paul Filo | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|8|21}} | birth_place = Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, United States<ref name="Philly">{{cite news|url=https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news-2/pulitzer-prize-winning-newspaper-photos-tell-their-stories-in-capture-the-moment-at-the-history-center-1338681/|title=Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper photos tell their stories in Capture the Moment, at the History Center.|last=O'Driscoll|first=Bill|date=July 5, 2007|newspaper=Pittsburgh City Paper|access-date=July 27, 2007}}</ref> | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Photojournalism | credits = Pulitzer Prize-winner }} '''John Paul Filo''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|aɪ|l|oʊ}}; born August 21, 1948) is an American photographer<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Rosenberg|first=David|title=Personal Remembrances of the Kent State Shootings, 43 Years Later|date=4 May 2013|magazine=Slate|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/05/04/may_4_1970_the_kent_state_university_shootings_told_through_pictures_photos.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Zhang|first=Michael|title=The Kent State Massacre Photo and the Case of the Missing Pole|date=29 August 2012|url=http://petapixel.com/2012/08/29/the-kent-state-massacre-photo-and-the-case-of-the-missing-pole/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Lilley|first=Bill|title=Pulitzer Winner John Filo, Photo's Subject, Reunited at Kent State|date=6 May 2009|publisher=National Press Photography Association|url=https://nppa.org/news/784|access-date=18 October 2014|archive-date=6 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806085046/https://nppa.org/news/784|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Schweitzer|first=Callie|title=For One Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer, Some Days Are Never Forgotten|date=14 December 2010|work=Neon Tommy|url=http://www.neontommy.com/news/2010/12/one-pulitzer-prize-winning-photographer-some-days-are-never-forgotten}}</ref> whose picture of 14-year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio wailing in grief while kneeling over the dead body of 20-year-old Jeffrey Miller, one of the victims of the Kent State shootings, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971. Age 21 at the time, Filo was both a photojournalism student at Kent State University, and staffer of the ''Valley Daily News'', which became the ''Valley News Dispatch'' and later a satellite paper for the ''Greensburg Tribune-Review''.
==Biography== After winning the Pulitzer Prize while working for the ''Valley Daily News'' (a Gannett paper) of the Pittsburgh suburb of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, he continued his career in photojournalism, rapidly finding work at the Associated Press, the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'', and as a picture editor at the ''Baltimore Evening Sun''. He eventually rose to a picture editing job at the weekly news magazine ''Newsweek'', and became head of photography for CBS.<ref>{{cite web|date=October 8, 2017|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eddie-adams-workshop-pulitzer-winning-photographers-teach-how-to-capture-the-moment/|title=Pulitzer-winning photographers teach how to capture the moment|work=CBS News|access-date=2018-08-05|last=DuBois|first=Maurice}}</ref>
==Taking the picture== {{See also|Kent State shootings}}
The Kent State shooting by members of the Ohio National Guard occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio on May 4, 1970, and resulted in the deaths of four students. At the time John Filo was in the university student photography lab when the shots rang out. He quickly ran outside and below recalls what happened:
{{blockquote|The bullets were supposed to be blanks. When I put the camera back to my eye, I noticed a particular guardsman pointing at me. I said, "I'll get a picture of this," and his rifle went off. And almost simultaneously, as his rifle went off, a halo of dust came off a sculpture next to me, and the bullet lodged in a tree.
I dropped my camera in the realization that it was live ammunition. I don't know what gave me the combination of innocence and stupidity ... I started to flee – run down the hill and stopped myself. "Where are you going?" I said to myself, "This is why you are here!"
And I started to take pictures again. ... I knew I was running out of film. I could see the emotion welling up inside of her. She began to sob. And it culminated in her saying an exclamation. I can't remember what she said exactly ... something like, "Oh, my God!"|John Filo talking about the Kent State shootings<ref name="CNN">{{cite web |date=May 4, 2000 | url = http://www.cnn.com/COMMUNITY/transcripts/2000/5/4/filo/| title = Photographer John Filo discusses his famous Kent State photograph and the events of May 4, 1970| publisher = CNN| access-date = 2007-07-27 | last=Filo, John }}</ref> }}
To take the picture Filo used a Nikkormat camera with Tri-X film and most of the exposures were 1/500 between 5.6 and f 8 depending on whether the sun was behind a cloud or not.<ref name="CNN"/>
==Altered photo== In the early 1970s, an anonymous editor airbrushed the fence post above Mary Ann Vecchio's head out of Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Since then, the altered photo has circulated and has been reprinted in many magazines.<ref name="USATODAY">{{cite news |date=February 12, 2004 | url = https://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2004-02-12-kantor_x.htm| title = Image manipulation means seeing isn't believing| newspaper = USA TODAY| access-date = 2007-07-26 | last=Kantor, Andrew }}</ref><ref name="DIGIRAL">{{cite web| year = 2000| url = http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/| title = Digital Tampering in the Media, Politics and Law| publisher = Dartmouth College| access-date = 2007-07-26| last = | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110606065418/http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/| archive-date = 2011-06-06| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="FamousPictures">{{cite web | url = http://www.famouspictures.org/kent-state-shooting/| title = Kent State Shooting| publisher = Famous Pictures Magazine| access-date = 2007-07-26 | last=Lucas, Dean }}</ref><ref name="WIRED">{{cite magazine|year=2000 |url=http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos54/2007/05/smudged_away.html |title=Re-imaging History |magazine=Wired |access-date=2013-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701171945/http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos54/2007/05/smudged_away.html |archive-date=2007-07-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Numerous publications, including ''Time'' (Nov. 6, 1972, p. 23; Jan. 7, 1980, p. 45) and ''People'' (May 2, 1977, p. 37; April 30, 1990, p. 117), have used the altered image without knowing it.<ref name="LetterFromLIFE">{{cite web |year=2000 | url = http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/meyer/06.html| title = Mystery of the missing pole, solved!| publisher = ZoneZero| access-date = 2007-07-26 | last=David Friend Director of Photography at LIFE}}</ref>
thumb|right|205px|Mary Ann Vecchio meeting John Filo at Kent State University, May 2009
==Meeting with Mary Ann Vecchio== In 1995, Filo met Mary Ann Vecchio for the first time, when both were scheduled to appear at an Emerson College conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the shootings.
The two met again on the Kent State University campus, at the 39th commemoration in May 2009, where they both spoke.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== * [https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/881 Interview with John Filo] by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Filo, John}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:People from Harrison Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Category:American photojournalists Category:Journalists from Pennsylvania Category:Kent State shootings Category:Kent State University alumni Category:Pulitzer Prize for Photography winners Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American male journalists