Don Hogan Charles, lauded civil rights era photographer, dies at 79

Don Hogan Charles, the first black photographer hired by the New York Times and who captured the iconic 1964 photo in Ebony Magazine of Malcolm X holding a gun in his Queen’s home,  has passed away.

He was 79.

About photographer Don Hogan Charles

Don Hogan Charles, the first black staff photographer to be hired by the NYTimes, has died. He shot amazing photos: this iconic image of Malcolm X for Ebony magazine, beautiful photos of Harlem, where he lived, and so many more. RIP (1/2) pic.twitter.com/lakp1TVrNw

— Rachel Swarns (@rachelswarns) December 24, 2017

Born in 1938, Charles went on to become one of the Civil Rights Era’s most lauded photographers, documenting the humanity and everyday lives of Black people in America.

Swarns linked to an 2016 article on Charles from the Times that chronicled Charles’ noteworthy career:

But in the hundreds of other photographs that he shot, visible in the negatives of our archives, a fuller portrait of the neighborhood and Mr. Charles’s neighbors comes into view. The residents of his Harlem are fully rounded people, not caricatures, symbols or subjects to be studied. He had less than two days to shoot this assignment, but his subjects share a dignity that was often missing from much reporting of the era.

Here are some of his iconic photos:

Don Hogan Charles photographed celebrities like Lew Alcindor, center, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar https://t.co/yHO1h7b1nG pic.twitter.com/pw4Hk0FRRu

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— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) December 27, 2017

Photographs by Don Hogan Charles, who died at 79: https://t.co/iLe2qSdhhd pic.twitter.com/7uVgrrI5Zz

— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) December 27, 2017

A mother and child walking in Harlem in August 1966. Don Hogan Charles, who died at 79, spent a weekend documenting the neighborhood and took nearly 600 photographs.https://t.co/tPMpxhFSIp pic.twitter.com/pFuEw04JZE

— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) December 27, 2017