Jacobus Willem Rentmeester (born 28 February 1936), nicknamed " Co" or " Ko", is a Dutch rower. He later became a photojournalist and covered the Vietnam War among other newsworthy events.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts, Rentmeester initially started his career as a freelance photographer in 1965 for Life Magazine. A short time later, he joined the LIFE Staff from April 1966 thru 1972 when LIFE Magazine folded. He first covered the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, documenting many of the dramatic events, which earned him his first accolades as a photographer.
Between late 1965 and 1969 Rentmeester was in Asia, where he particularly covered the Vietnam war. One of his pictures showed an M48 tank gunner looking through a gunsight. It was selected as World Press Photo of the Year and notably it was the first color photograph to win the award. He was also in Hong Kong during the extensive civil disturbances in 1967.
After Rentmeester was wounded by a Vietcong sniper near Saigon, he returned to the U.S. in 1972. His pictures from a trip through Indonesia were shown in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Asia House in New York.
In the following years, Rentmeester worked for numerous major publications as a photojournalist and as an advertising photographer.
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