James Burke
1915-1964


   
The JAMES BURKE Hydra Photographs
 George Johnston on James' accidental death:
     
'It was the right ending for Jim. And a damn sight better than dying in the squalor and cold and
rat-stench and misery and pain eighteen years earlier. ' (in Tibet)'

George Johnston
1912-1970
In October of 1960 the LIFE Magazine Photographer James Burke arrived on Hydra to visit his good friend George Johnston. He took a great interest in the Bohemian community and shot about 1600 photos of them at work & play. James and George had met during the war when both were War Correspondents in Asia. In June 1945 they both took a perilous  journey to Tibet where James acquired a kidney infection and nearly died. After the war George went back to Australia and James became a LIFE Magazine  photographer and spent most of his time in the mountains of India, Kashmir & Tibet. He was among the first to photograph Edmund Hilary and Tensing Norgay on their return from the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.  It was while photographing in the Himalayas in October 1964 that James Burke slipped and fell into a ravine and died. (More about the Tibet journey.)
A selection of the James Burke Hydra Photographs

 From left: Charles Heckstall (Poet), Leonard Cohen,  Charmian Clift (Writer)

In October 1960 Leonard, Marianne and a few of their friends took a trip to the historic  Female Monastery built in 1865  Agia Eupraxia (a female Saint) - James Burke went along to record the event.

 
Leaving Hydra town

  

 

 

© Images TIME-LIFE