Larry Gahn, International Photo-Journalist

Lawrence Aloysius/Adam Gahn, always known as “Larry,” was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1900. As a young man, he served in the Signal Aero Corps (the pre-cursor to today’s modern Air Force) enlisting in 1918. He married Margaret Lautz in 1920 and had three children: Margaret Mary known as “Marge,” Elizabeth Carolyn known as “Betty,” and Lawrence A. He was living in Los Angeles, California in 1923 in charge of a warehouse, but returned to St. Louis by 1926.

By 1927 he was working as a photographer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recording events such as the landing of Charles Lindbergh in St. Louis on 11 May 1927. He was at the forefront of emerging technology using phone lines to transmit photographs that would later develop into today’s wire services.  About 1930 he married Elmyra Constance Dowling Caitlin known as “Myra.” In 1931 he photographed Lou Gehrig for the St. Louis Times. By 1932 he had moved to Akron, Ohio and then on to Cleveland where he continued to do photographic work. In 1937 he photographed the Dionne Quintuplets and Sonja Heine.

By 1942 he was living in Washington, D.C. working for the Office of War Information (OWI). In 1944-45 he photographed the Japanese commanders signing the Act of Surrender in Nanking, China.  About 1945, he joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRR) during which time he photographed Madam Chiang Kai-shek and provided services for the China Welfare Fund. In 1947, he left the UNRR and returned to civilian work as a freelance photographer. In 1951 he was assigned as a writer-photographer for the Regional Service Center (part of the United States Information Services) working in the Philippines. In 1953, he left the RSC and joined the International Press Service of the United States Information Agency (USIA) as a UN correspondent.  During that time he was in Laos, Burma, and other countries. In 1957 he married Gladys Margaret Henderson and moved to Tripoli, Libya to continue work with the USIA. In 1959 they went to Dacca, Pakistan to work on the Village Aid in Industrial Development project of United States Operations Mission (USOM). 

In 1962, he retired and they moved to Fort Myers, Florida. He passed away in 1976 at the age of 76 having seen more, photographed more, and experienced more than most.

A few Larry Gahn photographs