In a self-portrait, photographer Doug Burrows posed with the Los Angeles skyline in the background. A La Cañada High School graduate, Burrows had more than 300 photos run in major publications around the world before his death in 1993.
Last December, the Los Angeles Times ran a pair of photos of the iconic rap group N.W.A. with stories on a new book chronicling its cultural impact. In the photos, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren pose, fists raised, thick gold chains glinting, their expressions stern beneath their ball caps.
Those lasting images of the provocative group were captured in 1989 by La Cañada High School graduate Doug Burrows, a passionate photojournalist who was born with a life-threatening cleft lip and cleft palate that required 30 surgeries, and who emerged from those challenges with a can-do spirit that helped establish him as a top young talent in his field.
Twenty-five years ago this month, Burrows was killed when the Toyota Celica he was driving on a quiet side street in downtown L.A was broadsided by an 18-wheeler that ran a red light. He was 29. Continue reading “Looking Through Lens of Tragedy Brings Closure”
