John L. Gaunt

John L. Gaunt (June 4, 1924 – October 26, 2007) was an American photographer.[1] He won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.[2]

John L. Gaunt
"Tragedy by the Sea", Gaunt's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the McDonalds family
BornJune 4, 1924
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 26, 2007(2007-10-26) (aged 83)
Desert Hot Springs, California, U.S.
EducationRedondo Union High School
Alma materUniversity of Southern California
OccupationPhotographer
Known forWinning the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Photography
SpouseMary Elise Gaunt
Children2

Born as the only child to a stockbroker, Gaunt moved and grew up in Hermosa Beach, California. Growing up with his future wife, Mary Elise, he graduated from Redondo Union High School. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He studied at Compton College and graduated from University of Southern California with a degree in zoology. Gaunt married Mary Elise in the late 1940s, and the two had two daughters: Jane and Abigail. He worked for the Los Angeles Times from October 1950 to 1988.[1][3]

His 1955 award-winning photo entitled "Tragedy by the Sea" depicted the morning of 2 April 1954 when his neighbors, young Hermosa couple John and Lillian McDonald, stood together beside a violent sea that had just taken their infant son, Michael, away. The photo made the front page of the Los Angeles Times the following morning.[4] As well as the Pulitzer, the photograph won an Associated Press Managing Editor's Award, and a prize from the California-Nevada Associated Press.[1]

References
  1. "John L. Gaunt Jr., 83; won Pulitzer as Times photographer". LA Times. Archived from the original on 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
  2. "The Pulitzer Prizes".
  3. Heinz Dietrich Fischer; Erika J. Fischer, eds. (2000). Press photography awards, 1942-1998. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-598-30184-1.
  4. "Beach Home Toddler Feared Drowned in Sea". The Los Angeles Times. April 3, 1954. p. 1. Retrieved December 20, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
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