Tony Vaccaro (Image: Manolo Salas via AP)
NEW YORK鈥擳ony Vaccaro鈥檚 mother died in childbirth, and at a tender age he also lost his father to tuberculosis. By age 5, he was an orphan in Italy, enduring beatings from an uncle. As an American GI during World War II, he survived the Battle of Normandy.
Now, a celebrated wartime and celebrity photographer at age 97, he is getting over a bout with COVID-19. He attributes his longevity to 鈥渂lind luck, red wine鈥� and determination.
鈥淭o me, the greatest thing that you can do is challenge the world,鈥� Vaccaro said. 鈥淎nd most of these challenges I win. That鈥檚 what keeps me going.鈥�
Vaccaro鈥檚 grit carried him into a lifetime of photography that began as a combat infantryman when he stowed a camera and captured close to 8,000 photographs of mundane and horrific moments.
One of his famous images鈥斺�淜iss of Liberation鈥濃�攕howed a US sergeant giving a kiss to a French girl at the end of the Nazi occupation.
He was the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary, 鈥淯nder Fire: The Untold Story of PFC Tony Vaccaro,鈥� and his images are displayed in such museums as the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Vaccaro documented the reconstruction of Europe and returned to the United States, where he became a fashion and celebrity photographer for magazines including Look, Life and Harper鈥檚 Bazaar.
He has fond memories of his subjects and their larger-than-life personalities including Sophia Loren, John F. Kennedy, Enzo Ferrari, Georgia O鈥橩eeffe and Pablo Picasso.
He and Picasso 鈥済ot along like two brothers.鈥� But the artist wouldn鈥檛 relax during their photoshoot, so Vaccaro tricked him by pretending that his camera was broken and that his shots weren鈥檛 real.
鈥淗e kept posing like male models. I didn鈥檛 like that,鈥� Vaccaro said. 鈥淚 wanted real photography to be real photography. Honest photography. And that鈥檚 what it turned out to be.鈥�
Vaccaro lives in Queens, a New York City borough ravaged by the coronavirus, and next to his son Frank, his twin grandsons and his daughter-in-law Maria, who manages his archive of 500,000 photographs.
Tony Vaccaro poses for a photo at his studio in Long Island City, in the Queens borough of New York. Image: Maria Vaccaro via AP
He might have caught the virus in April from his son or while walking in their neighborhood, his daughter-in-law said.
He was in the hospital for only two days with mild symptoms and spent another week recovering.
Then he surprised everyone by getting up and shaving.
鈥淭hat was it,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 walking around like nothing happened.鈥�
The family is working on another documentary that looks at his life before and after the war, but the pandemic has stopped production because it鈥檚 not safe to bring a film crew into the apartment.
鈥淲e joke that Tony survived COVID-19 because he wants to tell the rest of his story,鈥� said Maria Vaccaro.
But it also has reminded him of his good fortune.
鈥淚 really feel I have luck on my back,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I could go anywhere on this Earth and survive it.鈥澛�颁尝听/ra
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