The American press photographer Douglas Martin was thirteen years old when he started making photographs. Only a few years later, he sold his first image to a local newspaper for two dollars. During the Second World War, Martin was a fighter-pilot, and after his demobilization, he studied architecture. In 1953, he started working as a press photographer for the American newspaper Columbia, and a few years later moved to The Charlotte News (NC). In April 1958, just before winning the World Press Photo of the Year, he became a photographer for The Virginian-Pilot, in Norfolk, Virginia.
