Editing George Rodger (section)

==Life and career==
[[Image:Rodger, Bergen-Belsen.jpg|thumb|250px|One of Rodger's photographs taken after the liberation of [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] in 1945.]]
Born in [[Hale, Greater Manchester|Hale, Cheshire]], of English, Scottish, German and Swiss descent, Rodger went to school at [[St. Bees School]] in [[Cumberland]]. He joined the [[British Merchant Navy]] and sailed around the world. While sailing, Rodger wrote accounts of his travels and taught himself photography to illustrate his travelogues. He was unable to get his travel writing published; after a short spell in the United States, where he failed to find work during the [[Great Depression|Depression]], Rodger returned to Britain in 1936. In London, he found work as a photographer for the [[BBC]]'s ''[[The Listener (British magazine)|The Listener]]'' magazine. In 1938 he had a brief stint working for the [[Black Star (photo agency)|Black Star]] Agency.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Rodger had a strong urge to chronicle the war. His photographs of [[the Blitz]] gained him a job as a war correspondent for ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine, based in the United States. Rodger covered the war in West Africa extensively and, towards the end of the war, followed the Allies' liberation of France, Belgium and Netherlands. He also covered the retreat of the British forces in Burma. He was probably the only British war reporter/photographer allowed to write a story on the [[Burma Road]] by travelling on it into China, with special permission from the Chinese military.{{cn|date=October 2015}}

Rodger was one of many photographers to enter the [[concentration camp]] at [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] in 1945, the first being members of the British [[Army Film and Photographic Unit]]. His photographs of the survivors and piles of corpses were published in ''Life'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazines and were highly influential in showing the reality of the death camps. Rodger later recalled how, after spending several hours at the camp, he was appalled to realise that he had spent most of the time looking for graphically pleasing compositions of the piles of bodies lying among the trees and buildings. 
This traumatic experience led Rodger to conclude that he could not work as a war correspondent again. Leaving ''Life'', he travelled throughout Africa and the Middle East, continuing to document these areas' wildlife and peoples.
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Africa. Cameroons. Giant cranes like these jutting up over the construction work on the Eda dam have given Africa a... - NARA - 541655.tif|Cameroon, ca.1950
Africa. French Equatorial Africa. The old and the new - almost. The "wheelbarrow express" transports loads of... - NARA - 541650.tif|French Equatorial Africa, ca.1950
Netherlands. Land reclamation in Holland with help of Marshall Plan Funds - NARA - 541707.tif|[[Flevoland]], ca.1950
Netherlands. (An additional 480 square miles is being reclaimed with the aid of Marshall Plan counterpart fund. This... - NARA - 541710.tif|Flevoland, ca,1950
</gallery>