Bernard Hoffman (1913–1979) was an American documentary photographer. Most of his work appeared in an 18-year period in Life magazine starting in 1936. Most famously, he was known as the first American photographer on the ground after the dropping of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. Hoffman left Life in 1951 to improve photographic technology by establishing Bernard Hoffman Laboratories. Most notably, the lab was asked to process the famous Kennedy assassination footage. He retired in 1973 but stayed active running photography workshops—along with his wife Inez—until his passing.

Bernard Hoffman – Bored schoolgirl in Maine (1942)