Very few photographers have lived as long, varied, and complete a life or enjoyed as long, varied, and complete a career as David Douglas Duncan.
Now a vibrant 94 years old, the Missouri native started taking photos for newspapers in the 1930s; joined the United States Marines; made some of the most indelible images to come out of World War II; joined LIFE magazine; covered conflicts in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East; pictured beauty in the west of Ireland and the Arizona desert; befriended and photographed Picasso and Cartier-Bresson; and produced the greatest, most moving, most clear-eyed images to come out of the brutal war in Korea.
Not long ago, LIFE.com spoke with Duncan — now living in France — about his memories of the era, and his aim, in Korea, to “show something of what a man endures when his country decides to go to war.”
(see more — A Great Photographer’s Korean War)
