Sal Veder, Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer who shot iconic ‘Burst of Joy,’ dies at age 99

Sal Veder, Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer who shot iconic ‘Burst of Joy,’ dies at age 99 1 of 2 | Released prisoner of war Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., as he returns home from the Vietnam War, March 17, 1973. (AP Photo/Sal Veder, File) 2 of 2 | In this photo provided by Lynn Mantoani, Slava ‘Sal’ Veder holds his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, “Burst of Joy,” at Left Space Studio, Jan. 13, 2008, in San Francisco. (Timothy Mantoani/Lynn Mantoani via AP) By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and JANIE HAR Updated 11:53 PM MESZ, August 26, 2026 Leer en español Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Sacramento, Calif. (AP) — Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Slava ‘Sal’ Veder, best known for his picture of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel joyfully reuniting with his family after five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, died Aug. 22. He was 99. Veder’s family on Wednesday confirmed that the retired Associated Press photojournalist died in his sleep, just eight days shy of his 100th birthday, at his home in El Dorado County, California, outside of Sacramento. The San Francisco Bay Area native was 46 years old in March 1973 when he was sent to Travis Air Force Base for the arrival of Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm and other war prisoners returning from Vietnam. Veder was in a crowded bullpen jockeying for pictures with dozens of other photographers when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Stirm’s four children begin to gallop toward their father. “You could tell, even at a distance, what they were feeling. It was all over them, their faces, the way they all broke into a run. There was a surge of emotion from the crowd, too,” Veder said in a 2015 interview with The Guardian. Using a makeshift darkroom set up in a women’s bathroom on base, Veder cranked out six images, including “Burst of Joy,” which won the 1974 Pulitzer in feature photography. Veder noted that in the photograph, Stirm has his back to the camera, rendering him an everyman soldier returning to the undeniable joy and excitement on the faces of his children. The photo became a symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. But for Stirm, it represented heartbreak as he had been handed a “Dear John” letter from his wife, Loretta, by a chaplain upon his release and the couple divorced a year later. Stirm died in 2025. Slava J. Veder was born Aug. 30, 1926, in Berkeley, California, to Ivan and Anka Veder, who had left Russia and taken the names John and Ann when they settled in the U.S. He was their only child. He worked as a sports writer and news editor at several publications and, in 1961, he was hired as a staff photographer by The Associated Press at its Sacramento bureau. Later, he transferred to the San Francisco office, which is where he was based when he took the prize-winning photograph. “He was a newsman at heart, it wasn’t just a career for him. It was really his passion,” said his daughter, Kathleen Daly. “The AP really was the home for him because they could appreciate what he had to offer.” Daly, friends and former colleagues remembered Veder as a kind and humble person who loved to ice skate and sail. He mentored younger photographers and always took time to ask the people around him how they were doing that day. “He was the first Pulitzer Prize winner I ever met, like holy smokes,” said Brad Mangin, a freelance sports photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. “He was just the sweetest man.” Eric Risberg, a retired AP photographer who worked in San Francisco, said Veder was a great mentor and teacher. “He really, really emphasized the marriage between pictures and words. He encouraged me to dive deeper, and get more into what’s really the story?” Risberg said. Among his many assignments, Veder took photographs of the late Ronald Reagan when he was California governor, university campus protests against the war in Vietnam, the bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White in 1978. Veder, who raised five children with his wife, retired from AP in 1993 to the small community of Camino, in El Dorado County. He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Har, a former AP journalist, contributed reporting previously for this story. AP reporters Randy Herschaft in New York and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report. KATHLEEN RONAYNE Ronayne manages news coverage across California for text, photo and video. She is based in Sacramento. twitter mailto JANIE HAR Har covers general news out of San Francisco. That includes homelessness and housing, courts, urban affairs and San Francisco politics. twitter mailto