JACK BIRNS, Natives in Saigon perch on iron railing to watch finish of the Sunday pony races, 1948, 10.4x13.4" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1948, Inscribed in pencil on print verso: Saigon race track French officers, soldiers, and Annamites turn out on Sunday afternoon to watch pint-sized ponies race on over-grown track, Annamite rail-birds watch horses coming down the home stretch. Inscribed in black marker: CX Sports-Horse Racing-Vietnam (Railbirds Watch Races on Track in Saigon, French Indo-China, date of pic, 1948). Miscellaneous notations in pencil, black/red marker, and orange grease pencil. LIFE/photographer's credit stamp, two Famous Picture stamps, Famous Picture label, French Indochina stamp, printer's stamp.

Jack Birns was a classic newspaper photographer, editor, and writer, primarily for Scripps Howard.

Jack Birns (1919-2008) was born in Cleveland, Ohio March 22, 1919 to Russian immigrants Morris and Becky Birnbaum. After graduating from Ohio Northern University in 1941 with a degree in English Literature and Journalism, he entered the newspaper business as a cub reporter working for the Scripps-Howard feature service (NEA), United Press, and the International News Service, all in Cleveland. After a brief departure from journalism to manage newsreel theaters in Cleveland and Buffalo, Birns returned as a photographer-writer for NEA-ACME (Scripps-Howard photo service) and became the bureau chief of the five-state Acme photo bureau headquartered in Cleveland.

After returning to the US, Birns established the motion picture firm of Birns & Sawyer, along with Clifford Sawyer. In 1954 Birns & Sawyer built the first underwater motion picture camera housings for the US Navy and, in 1961, the Navy's first underwater lights. Birns also established a separate Birns & Sawyer lens grinding facility in Riverside County to make telephoto lenses for the US Air Force and Navy. In 1979 Birns left Birns & Sawyer to start BIRNS, Inc., devoted to all types of energy-related underwater and high-performance lighting. BIRN's lights are now used by the navies of more than 23 countries, 83% of USA-based commercial nuclear power stations, NASA at KSC, and many others. In March 1984 the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution honoring Birns's 30 years of work there, and in October 1984 his photographs hung in New York and Washington as part of a LIFE magazine exhibit of the best pictures of the 1950-1960 decade.

CREDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Birns

Good. Moderate wear, handling marks, edge wear.