Our ongoing Cinematographers Series–the last installment of which appeared in our March 19th Spring Directors Issue–has put us, and hopefully you, more in touch with the artistry of assorted shooters over the years.
Yet putting us even more deeply in touch with that artistry–and its potential to impact our lives–was the passing last month of photojournalist Charles Moore at the age of 79. Moore died Thursday, March 11, of natural causes at a nursing home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Moore’s career is a testament to the power of a single image–and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a moving image. Paradoxically, though, Moore’s still images were moving, figuratively. They were images that moved people to action and our society to a better place.
From the late 1950s to the mid ’60s, Moore covered the civil rights movement as a photographer for the Montgomery Advertiser (Alabama) as well as Life magazine.
The images Moore captured–sometimes at his own personal peril–helped to put the national spotlight on injustices, building public opinion and momentum that eventually led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Moore began photographing the then relatively unknown Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery in 1958, a pivotal image that year being of King getting manhandled while being booked at a police station. The photo appeared in Life magazine as did Moore’s photos of Ku Klux Klan meetings and rioting over the enrollment of James Meredith, the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi.
There were also images of civil rights movement protestors being attacked by police dogs and doused with water from a fire truck hose.
The latter image came in 1963 as students demonstrated in Birmingham, Ala., to spur on desegregation only to find themselves pinned against a building by water spurting from a high-pressure hose.
The son of a Baptist minister, Moore was born in Hackleburg, Ala., and was raised in the nearby town of Tuscumbia. He took up boxing as a teenager, later quipping that he turned in his boxing gloves for a camera.
This led to the title of the 2005 documentary, Charles Moore: I Fight With My Camera.
Moore served in the Marine Corps as a photographer, then studied at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif. Moore returned to Alabama in ’57 and joined the Montgomery Advertiser.
Later on in his professional career, Moore brought his photojournalism to bear on the Vietnam War, as well as political unrest in Haiti and Venezuela.
Still, it was his coverage of the civil rights movement which has endured most of all.
In fact, a book was published in 1991 chronicling that work: “Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore.”
Moore’s obituary in the Los Angeles Times cited an interview he did with the Birmingham News in ’02, in which he related, “I know the importance isn’t me, but the photographs. It’s proof that the world learned a lot from them. Honestly, if those pictures made my native South, which I love, a better place…then I am darn proud of that.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Reach Divorce Settlement After 8 Years
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a divorce settlement, ending one of the longest and most contentious divorces in Hollywood history but not every legal issue between the two.
Jolie and Pitt signed off on a default declaration filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, saying they have entered into a written agreement on their marital and property rights. The settlement was first reported by People magazine.
"More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt," Jolie's attorney, James Simon, said in a statement. "She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over."
The filing says they give up the right to any future spousal financial support, but gives no other details. A judge will need to sign off on the agreement. An email late Monday night to Pitt's attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.
Jolie, 49, and Pitt, 61, were among Hollywood's most prominent pairings for 12 years, two of them as a married couple. The Oscar winners have six children together.
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, after a private jet flight from Europe during which she said Pitt physically abused her and their children. The FBI and child services officials investigated Pitt's actions on the flight. Two months later, the FBI released a statement saying it would not investigate further, and the U.S. attorney did not bring charges.
A heavily redacted FBI report obtained by The Associated Press in 2022 said that an agent provided a probable cause... Read More