(December 9, 1919-October 27, 2009)
Born in Harlem, New York
Opened 'A Photographer's Gallery' in New York City (1955)
Professor of Art at Hunter College
Winner, National Medal of Arts (2006)

He wore a comb-over hairstyle.
He left a career in commercial illustration to take photos.
He quit working for Sports Illustrated, feeling constrained.
He snapped pictures of jazz musicians in dark, smoky nightclubs, sometimes making the figures hard to discern.

His parents split up when he was an infant, leaving him to be raised by a hard-working single mom.
His mentor was legendary photographer Edward Steichen.
He won the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1952, becoming the first black shutterbug to do so.
In 1955 he collaborated with Langston Hughes, another of his idols, for 'The Sweet Flypaper of Life,' a study of life in Harlem.
His main reason for presenting his subjects with integrity was, 'there were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it.'

Credit: Black Chic

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