Freedom History

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HISTORIAN, AUTHOR & SPEAKER

Steve Chicoine is the author of numerous acclaimed books and scholarly articles in the field of American history on such diverse topics as military & veterans, immigration & race, and sports. He has been a public speaker to a wide range of audiences for thirty years. Steve is a graduate of University of Illinois and Stanford University. As an adventure traveler, he journeyed through such remote destinations as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Nepal, coastal China, Indonesia, Eastern Europe and much of Russia, including Siberia. Always a traveler, never a tourist. His photographs have been exhibited, used in books and won awards.


ADVENTURE TRAVEL PHOTOS by Steve Chicoine

A Tribute to My Friend, The Late Paul Conklin

I learned photography in the field while traveling in Xinjiang Province in far-western China for a month alongside Paul

Conklin obituary, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/22/us/paul-conklin-74-peace-corps-photographer.html

Paul Conklin, 74, Peace Corps Photographer

Sept. 22, 2003

Paul S. Conklin, a prolific photojournalist who was the first official photographer for the Peace Corps in the 1960’s, died on Wednesday at his home in Port Townsend, Wash. He was 74. The cause was cancer, his wife, Ruth Merryman, said.
Mr. Conklin’s work appeared in National Geographic, Time magazine, The New York Times and other publications. One of his most striking images, which appeared in Time, was that of a young protester placing a daisy in the barrel of a National Guardsman’s rifle during a demonstration at the Pentagon against the Vietnam War.
His rise to prominence came first with his work for the Peace Corps, where he was hired in 1964 by the agency’s director, Sargent Shriver. After service in the Army, Mr. Conklin worked as a newspaper reporter in Minneapolis and as a freelance writer in Nigeria. Then, based on his experience in Africa, he approached Mr. Shriver in Washington and was hired by the newly formed Peace Corps.
Later in his career, Mr. Conklin continued to travel extensively. Working with the writer Brent Ashabranner and others, he provided photographs for more than 20 books for young adults.
At times, he engaged his subjects closely: Ms. Merryman said one project involved living for six weeks with an Arab family and an Israeli family for a book on how Mideast hostilities affected the lives of children.