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New York : Righting Civils Wrongs at Keith de Lellis Gallery

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The Keith de Lellis Gallery presents Righting Civil Wrongs. Vintage Photographs of the Struggle for Racial Equality, fifty years after the Selma March. Featuring over 50 vintage prints, the exhibition depicts some of the most relevant events of the African-American civil rights movement: the Little Rock Crisis (1957), the March on Washington (1963), the Selma March (1965), the March against Fear (1966) and Martin Luther King’s assassination (1968).

The original photographs on view have been made by some of the most famous photojournalists of the fight against racial discrimination: Charles Moore, Flip Schulke, James Karales, Joe Scherschel, Ed Clark… Some have been commissioned by the two most popular US magazines Life and Look, and published there as portfolios, provoking reactions from politicians, and receiving awards, and becoming iconic for the next generation.

Charles Moore (1931-2010) was part of the Black Star agency and worked as a freelance photographer for Life magazine from 1962 to 1970. His coverage of the 1963 riots in Birmingham – presented in the show – was published over 11 pages in the May 17, 1963 Life edition and provoked a wave of indignation, from President John F. Kennedy to Malcolm X. The same year, Andy Warhol used Moore’s attack dogs photographs published in this photo-essay to create his ‘’Race Riots’’ paintings. Jacob Javits, then the U.S. Senator from New York, explained that this Life publication ‘’helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.’’ Moore’s Selma pictures in 1965 – on view – were also published in two issues of Life. The Moore civil rights photographs are part of the Photo Collection of the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto (Canada) and of the Mc Cain Archives at the University of Southern Mississippi and are the topic of a book: Powerful Days. The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore (1991).

Flip Schulke (1930-2008) had a close friendship with Martin Luther King after meeting him in 1958. He photographed many of the important events of the civil rights era and made approximately 11,000 images. Among others, the Keith de Lellis Gallery presents portraits of King, photographs of the University of Mississippi riots (1962) – his first assignment for Life – and of the historical Marches including, the March on Washington where King gave his famous ‘’I have a dream’’ speech (1963), the Selma March (1965), and the March against Fear (1966). After King’s death in April 1968, Coretta Scott King, the widow, invited Schulke to Atlanta to document the funeral. The photos which were published in the following issue of Life magazine, are part of the exhibition. The picture of Coretta Scott King under her black veil – on view at the gallery – was the cover of the magazine and was named Picture of the Year by the National Press Photographer’s Association. The Flip Schulke Photographic Archives he donated in 1999 are at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas (Austin). His photographs are also part of the Photo Collection of the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto (Canada). Four books document his coverage of the civil rights movement: Martin Luther King Jr.: A Documentary, Montgomery to Memphis (1976), King Remembered (1986), He Had a Dream (1995) and Witness to our Times. My Life as a Photojournalist (2003).

James Karales (1930-2002) was a photographer for Look magazine between 1960 and 1972 and is included in the show with his pictures of the churchs’ role during the events that Look published in the May 18, 1965 issue, and the Selma March. His iconic image of this event which is permanently on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta and won the award of the Picture of the Year in 1965, is also currently exhibited at the gallery. His archives are at the Center of Documentary Arts at Duke University (Durham) and, concerning his photographs for Look, in the Look Magazine Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress. A book about Karales’ civil rights photographs has been published in 2013: Controversy and Hope: The Civil Rights Photographs of James Karales.
These three sets are completed with photographs made by Joe Scherschel and Ed Clark commissioned by Life magazine to cover the disparity and initial integration of schools in the South and Bob Adelma, the photographer for the Congress of Racial Equality in the early 1960s.

EXHIBITION
Righting Civil Wrongs
Vintage Photographs of the Struggle for Racial Equality
April 30 – June 13, 2015
Keith de Lellis Gallery
1045 Madison Ave # 3
New York, NY 10075
USA

www.keithdelellisgallery.com

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