Background
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.
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, he applied for and received conscientious objector status. He photographed the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, after which he moved to El Salvador in 1979. In 1981, a car he was in hit a land mine.
He and photojournalist Susan Meiselas were both wounded and photojournalist Ian Mates died from the blast.
He also photographed in Beirut as the New York Times noted in their article on March 17, 1984 reporting his death in El Salvador. At the time of his death, John Hoagland was a contract photographer for Newsweek.
John Hoagland was one of 35 journalists whose names appeared on "death lists" by Salvadoran death squads. On 16 March, he was gunned down while photographing a Salvadoran military operation near Sauchitoto.
He was with photographer Robert Nickelsburg of Time Magazine when he was hit by M-60 fire by Salvadoran military troops.
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.
