Carolyn McKenzie Carter (1919 - April 21, 2010) was an American photojournalist who worked for the Atlanta Constitution (now The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) from 1940 until the early 1950s.
Carolyn McKenzie Carter | |
|---|---|
| Born | Carolyn McKenzie |
| Other names | Mrs. Don Carter Carolyn Carter |
Early life
Carter was born in 1919[1] and was raised in Moultrie, Georgia. She was a graduate of the Nashville-based Ward-Belmont School.[2] She graduated from the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications in 1940.[3] Carter met Lieutenant Donnel Earl Carter, cousin of President Jimmy Carter and a journalist for a competing newspaper when her work ended up on the front page of the paper and his was relegated to the end pages.[4] The couple married in 1942.[1]
Career
In 1940, Carter was hired by Ralph McGill to work for the Atlanta Constitution, thereby becoming the first women to serve as a photojournalist at the publication.[2] In the 1940s, she worked for the Gainesville Daily Register and the Alexandria Daily Town Talk newspapers.[5] She would also work at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sunday magazine where captured photographs of the American South.[6]
When the war concluded, Carter began covering more domestic topics, which included one well-known image of a child showing how an iron lung was used.[7][1] In 1954 Carter became a commercial photographer for the Coca-Cola Company,[8] traveling overseas to document the organization’s international expansion for its employee magazine, The Refresher.[2] She would work at Coca-Cola for five years.[9] In 1959 she moved to New York and did freelance work for the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Travel.[10][9]
In 2012, her husband Don Carter created the University of Georgia Don E. and Carolyn McKenzie Carter Endowment for Journalism to fund the University’s Chair for Excellence in Journalism [11]
Carter died on April 21, 2010.[2]
Selected publications
- Carter, Carolyn McKenzie (1943). "War Wives in Journalism". Matrix. 29 (6). Women in Communications: 7-.
- Carter, Carolyn (1945-07-08). "Dangling on a rope under Georgia". The Atlanta Journal. pp. [1], [2]. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
- Talmadge, Betty; Carter, Carolyn; Robitscher, Jean (1977-11-15). How to Cook a Pig & Other Back-to-the-Farm Recipes: An Autobiographical Cookbook.[12]
Awards and honors
In 1959, Carter was designated a master photographer by the Professional Photographers of America.[8][13] She was the first female named “Man of the Year” from the Industrial Photographers of America.[9] The Carolyn Carter Award was established in 1986 by Georgia's Department of Industry, Trade and Travel.[10] In 2008 she was a member of the inaugural class of Grady Fellows at the University of Georgia.[10][3] Carter was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame in 2017.[10][14]
References
External links
- Carolyn Carter photograph collection at the University of Georgia
- Dogwood Trees 1960 photo taken by Carolyn Carter and held at the Atlanta History Center