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Frank Johnston selected for The White House News Photographers Association 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award

(Washington, DC) The White House News Photographers Association will present Frank Johnston with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 ‘Eyes of History’ annual awards gala Saturday, April 28, 2007, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC.

Frank Johnston’s history making photos included the Oswald shooting, the war in Vietnam, the massacre of Jim Jones followers in Guyana, Watergate, space shuttle launches, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and every presidential administration since Lyndon Johnson.

Looking back, Frank says it was his photo of a wounded Marine in Peace Church (An Hoa), under siege by the North Vietnamese, which affected him most. The Marine was sitting on the altar, a statue of Jesus on a cross behind his helmeted head. After traveling to the church in 1998 with Robert Sutter, an Atlanta man who believed the photo to be that of his deceased brother, Frank was called by another Marine -Mike Tripp, who said he was the man in the photo. He was, and Frank made an emotional trip to Atlanta to introduce Tripp and Sutter.

United Press International hired Johnston in 1963. He joined the staff of The Washington Post in 1968 was a staff photographer until his retirement in 2003. Frank, who married his wife Nancy in 1968, was the first photographer to receive the Alicia Patterson Fellowship and spent a year traveling the United States to photograph social and economic change. His work appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, and textbooks. The co-author of two books, “The Working White House,” and “Jonestown Massacre,” he also contributed to four “Day in the Life” books: America, Spain, California, and the Soviet Union.

Frank Johnston was named White House News Photographers Association photographer of the year in 1978, 1979 and 1985. He has been honored with awards from the Overseas Press Club, World Press Photo and the National Press Photographers Association.