Bob Briggs started as a copy boy for the St. Louis Globe-Democra
t and eventually traveled around the world taking pictures for the Globe-Democrat and as a correspondent for Life and Time magazines. Briggs worked his way up in the art department and was hired as a photographer in the late 1940s. He learned photography after his shifts in the art department using a Speed Graphic he bought from another Globe-Democrat staffer.
He was drafted during the Korean War, but didn’t serve in combat in that conflict. He was sent to Japan to replace an Army photographer who had been killed in a Jeep accident. Briggs photographed various aspects of Japanese culture and scenery. After returning to the Globe-Democrat, he introduced 35mm cameras to news photography in the region. He photographed every president from Truman to Nixon, construction of the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium and the 1964 World Series victory of the Cardinals over the Yankees.
Briggs traveled to places like Spain to photograph bullfights and McMurdo Sound in Antarctica to photograph scientists. Briggs left the newspaper business in 1966 to work in public relations, but continued to incorporate photography into his remaining jobs. Briggs won several photography awards from the Associated Press, the St. Louis Press Club and the University of Chicago.