Charles Lee Moore was an American photographer most famous for his photographs documenting the American civil rights era.

Life and career

Moore was born in 1931 in Hackleburg, Alabama

Hackleburg, Alabama

Hackleburg is a town in Marion County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 1,430. It is also the hometown of country music singer Sonny James. James had numerous country and cross over pop hits starting in the 1950s though the 1970s...

. He served three years in the U.S. Marines as a photographer and then attended the Brooks Institute of Photography

Brooks Institute of Photography

Brooks Institute is a system of two for-profit private arts colleges based in Santa Barbara, California and Ventura, California, owned by Career Education Corporation. Formally known as "Brooks Institute of Photography," Brooks Institute offers four majors, two certificate programs and two...

 in Santa Barbara, Calif. He next applied for a job as a photographer with the morning and afternoon newspapers The Montgomery Advertiser and The Montgomery Journal.

In 1958, while working in Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

 for the Montgomery Advertiser, he photographed an argument between Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

 and two policemen. His photographs were distributed nationally by the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

, and published in Life

Life (magazine)

Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

.

From this start, Moore traveled throughout the South

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 documenting the Civil Rights Movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

. His most famous photograph, Birmingham, depicts demonstrators being attacked by firemen wielding high-pressure hoses. U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, said that Moore's pictures "helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...

."

In 1962, Moore left the newspapers to start a freelance career. He worked for the Black Star

Black Star (photo agency)

Black Star is a New York City-based photographic agency that offers photojournalism, corporate assignment photography and stock photography services worldwide....

 picture agency, which sold much of his work to Life.

Moore went on to cover the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 and many other trouble spots. He then moved on to nature, fashion and travel photography, in addition to corporate work.

He also photographed conflicts in the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 and Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

.

In 1989, Charles Moore became the first recipient of the Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

 Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism which is awarded for a "body of photographic work which has influenced public perceptions on important issues of our time" in the NPPA

National Press Photographers Association

NPPA is the acronym for the National Press Photographers Association, founded in 1947. The organization is based in Durham, North Carolina and its mostly made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field...

–University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

 Pictures of the Year Competition.

In 2008, Moore's last photography observed the removal of a tree at Barton Hall (Alabama)

Barton Hall (Alabama)

Barton Hall, also known as the Cunningham Plantation, is an antebellum plantation house built for Armstead Barton in the 1840s near present day Cherokee, Alabama...

, a historic 1840's plantation home.

Moore died at age 79, on March 11, 2010, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

External links

• Collection of Moore photographs on Kodak.com
• "Charles Moore, Rights-Era Photographer, Dies at 79," New York Times, March 15, 2010
• Charles Moore - post-mortem audio story and slideshow by NPR
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
  
  
• Charles Moore's final photography 2008