IRVINE — Dang Van Phuoc, a former photographer for the Associated Press who documented the Vietnam War while surviving multiple combat injuries, died at age 91 in Southern California after collapsing suddenly. His nephew, Van Nguyen, confirmed the death.

Phuoc was wounded at least five times during his decade with the AP in Vietnam, beginning just five months after he was hired in 1965 by the agency’s former photo chief, Horst Faas. He lost his right eye in a 1969 grenade explosion while on patrol with a Ranger battalion south of Da Nang but returned to work despite the injury. In a 2011 interview for AP’s archives, Phuoc described the challenge of working with one eye, noting he had to “look through the camera while also watching for silent hand gestures from soldiers with whom he was patrolling.”

Born in 1935 in a Vietnamese village near Quang Ngai, Phuoc was the youngest of many siblings. His father was killed by local Viet Cong members when Phuoc was about 10, and his mother died a few years later, leaving him homeless. As a young man, he volunteered at a Saigon film studio—where his nephew’s mother worked as a cook—and taught himself photography. He walked with the “point man” on combat patrols to capture close-range images, exposing himself to extreme danger.

In 1968, Phuoc sustained a concussion from a rocket blast while covering street fighting in Saigon. That same year, he risked sniper fire to carry a wounded U.S. soldier to safety, earning a commendation from the Ninth U.S. Army Infantry Division. Colleague Huỳnh Công “Nick” Út, of AP’s Saigon bureau, described Phuoc as “fearless and resourceful in the field.” Út added, “Everyone loved him so much. When I heard, I cried, ‘My brother, he’s gone.’”

After Saigon fell in 1975, Phuoc fled with his family, carrying little more than their clothes and a bottle of milk. With help from AP reporter Linda Deutsch, they were rescued from a refugee camp in Guam and flown to Camp Pendleton. Phuoc briefly worked for the AP in Hong Kong before settling permanently in Southern California, where he became a professional portrait photographer in Orange County’s Little Saigon. He was a founding member of The Artistic Photography Association, trained young photographers, and served as a civilian volunteer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, earning the county’s 1994 volunteer of the year award. In the 2011 interview, Phuoc likened himself to a “small grain of sand” who used his pictures to bring the stories of civilians caught in the crossfire to the world.