Burk Uzzle


Burk Uzzle is an American photojournalist, previously member of Magnum Photos and president from 1979 to 1980.
Burk Uzzle has spent his life as a professional photographer. Initially grounded in documentary photography when he was the youngest contract photographer hired by Life magazine at age 23, his work continues to reflect the human condition. For sixteen years during the 1970s and 1980s, he was an active contributor to the evolution of Magnum and served as its President in 1979 and 1980. While affiliated with the cooperative, he produced the iconic and symbolic image of Woodstock, helped people grasp an understanding of the assassination and funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and powerfully projects comprehension of what it means to be an outsider - from Cambodian war refugees to disenfranchised populations without voice or agency to portraits of communities not identified on a roadmap.
His archive spans more than six decades and captures much of the history of analog and digital photography. His current bodies of work rest deep in issues of social justice. A dozen years ago, Uzzle returned to North Carolina and now lives and works in two century old industrial buildings located in downtown Wilson not far from where he was born. With the energy and determination of someone half his age, he wakes every morning at 5am, takes an hour to swiftly bike all over the town before the sun is up, and then gets to work. Disciplined, organized, and always open to ideas emboldened through keen intuition, Uzzle states with conviction that photography is his reason to breathe and what he sees is his muse.

Solo exhibitions

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