Don Hogan Charles

Noted photographer of the civil rights movement

Donhogancharles, the first black photographer hired by the New York Times, died on 15 December in East Harlem. He was 79. In more than four decades at the NYT, Charles photographed a wide range of subjects, from local hangouts to celebrities to fashion to the United Nations. But he may be best remembered for his photographs of key moments and figures of the civil rights era.

In 1964, he took a nowfamous photographof Malcolm X holding a rifle as he peered out of the window of his Queens home. In 1968, for the NYT, he photographed Coretta Scott King, her gaze fixed in the distance, at the funeral of her husband, the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Charles resisted being racial- ly pigeonholed but also considered it a duty to cover the movement, said colleague Chester Higgins. “He felt that his responsibility was to get the story right, that the white reporters and white photographers were very limited.” .

Even in New York, historically black neighbourhoods like Harlem, where Charles lived, were often covered with little nuance. But Charles gave readers a fuller portrait of life in those parts of the city.

Exacting and deeply private, Charles came off as standoffish to some. But to others, especially many women, he was a supportive mentor.

Daniel James Charles was born in New York City on 9 September 1938. His parents, James Charles and Elizabeth Ann Hogan, were immigrants from the Caribbean. After graduating from school in Manhattan, he enrolled at the City College of New York as an engineering student before dropping out to pursue photography. He worked as a freelance photographer before joining The Times in 1964. He retired in 2007. Charles never married and had no children. © New York Times 2017. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service