[2] His career as a war photographer began in 1939, when he was a combat cameraman for the Australian government, covering action in the Middle East, North Africa and Greece.

Trapped with the famed Desert Rats at Tobruk in Libya, he was captured by German field marshal Erwin Rommel's forces but escaped 10 days later.

Silk took the first photographs of Nagasaki, Japan, after the atomic bomb was dropped there on 9 August 1945, as well as Japanese war criminals awaiting trial in post-war Tokyo.

Following the war, Silk’s work primarily focused on sports photography and found innovative ways to capture motion.

In 1961, Silk was chosen as one of 50 outstanding Americans of meritorious performance in the fields of endeavour, to be honoured as a Guest of Honor to the first annual Banquet of the Golden Plate in Monterey, California.

[5] Edward Steichen included his pictures taken in Jamaica in the 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man which toured the world to be seen by 9 million visitors.