Famed photographer Bob Adelman, whose portfolio captured many moving moments during the civil rights movement, died Saturday in Miami. He was 85 years old.
βHe was an amazing man with a passion for civil rights, a sweetheart of a guy,β Adelmanβs attorney told the Miami Herald.
Suggested Reading
Adelmanβs most iconic work happened during the 1960s, documenting civil unrest in the South and intimate portraits of Martin Luther King Jr.βs βI Have a Dreamβ speech. Adelman was also there for the brutal 50-mile march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
βIt was probably the greatest display of the peopleβs right to protest that Iβve ever participated in,β Adelman told the Florida paper last year.
The New York Daily News reports that Adelmanβs online portfolio also featured a photo of Kingβs body inside his casket after his assassination.
Many of Adelmanβs photos are archived at the Library of Congress. Many moments from that time were published in his 2007 book, Mine Eyes Have Seen: Bearing Witness to the Struggle for Civil Rights.
Adelman, a graduate of Columbia University, launched his magazine career as aΒ protΓ©gé to John F. Kennedyβs favorite photographer, Jacques Lowe. His work has appeared in publications such as Time, Life and the New York Times Magazine, according to his website.
He moved to Florida from his native New York in 1997, the Herald reports.
Read more at the Miami Herald and the New York Daily News.
LikeΒ The RootΒ onΒ Facebook. Follow us onΒ Twitter.
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.