John Hoagland (15 June 1947 – 16 March 1984) was a war photographer and photojournalist noted for his documentation of civil conflicts in Nicaragua, Lebanon, and El Salvador.
Hoagland was born in San Diego, California, and educated at the University of California, San Diego, where he was influenced by the Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse, as well as a classmate, Angela Davis. During the Vietnam War, Hoagland applied for and received conscientious objector status, but war was a subject that had a massive impact on his life and death. He photographed the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, after which he moved to El Salvador in 1979. He also photographed in Beirut.
By 1984, Hoagland was on the "hit list" of the government death squads. Many of his colleagues had been assassinated already in El Salvador. On 16 March, he was gunned down while photographing a pair of Salvadoran soldiers. The journalist and photographer 'John Cassidy,' played by John Savage in the 1986 movie Salvador was loosely based on Hoagland.
Hoagland's son, Eros Hoagland, is also a photographer who currently works in conflict zones around the globe.
Famous quotes containing the words john and/or hoagland:
“Well, on the official record you’re my son. But on this post you’re just another trooper. You heard me tell the recruits what I need from them. Twice that I will expect from you.... You’ve chosen my way of life. I hope you have the guts enough to endure it. But put outa your mind any romantic ideas that it’s a way to glory. It’s a life of suffering and of hardship and uncompromising devotion to your oath and your duty.”
—James Kevin McGuinness, and John Ford. Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke (John Wayne)
“Many people have believed that they were Chosen, but none more baldly than the Texans.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)