Carolyn McKenzie Carter
Carolyn McKenzie Carter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1919 Moultrie, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | Error: Need valid birth date (second date): year, month, day |
| Occupation | Photojournalist |
| Years active | 1940–1959 |
| Known for | First female photojournalist at the Atlanta Constitution; commercial photography for Coca-Cola Company |
Carolyn McKenzie Carter (1919 – April 21, 2010) was an American photojournalist known for her tenure at the Atlanta Constitution (currently The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) from 1940 through the early 1950s.
Early life
Born in 1919 and raised in Moultrie, Georgia, Carter completed her education at the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville and graduated from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia in 1940.
She met Lieutenant Donnel Earl Carter—who was both a journalist for a rival newspaper and a cousin of President Jimmy Carter—after her photographs were featured on the front page, while his appeared toward the back. The couple married in 1942.
Career
Carter broke ground in 1940 when Ralph McGill hired her as the Atlanta Constitution’s first female photojournalist. Throughout the 1940s, she also contributed to the Gainesville Daily Register and the Alexandria Daily Town Talk. Her work for the Sunday magazine of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution captured pivotal images reflecting life in the American South.
Following World War II, Carter focused on domestic subjects, including a striking image of a child using an iron lung. In 1954, she transitioned to commercial photography with the Coca-Cola Company, where she chronicled its global growth for their employee publication, The Refresher. After five years there, she relocated to New York in 1959 to freelance for the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Travel.
In honor of her legacy, her husband Don Carter founded the University of Georgia Don E. and Carolyn McKenzie Carter Endowment for Journalism in 2012 to support the Chair for Excellence in Journalism at UGA.
Carolyn Carter died on April 21, 2010.
Selected publications
Awards and honors
In 1959, Carter achieved recognition as a master photographer by the Professional Photographers of America and became the first woman to receive the Industrial Photographers of America’s “Man of the Year” award.
The Carolyn Carter Award was created in 1986 by Georgia's Department of Industry, Trade and Travel. In 2008, she was named among the inaugural Grady Fellows at the University of Georgia.
She was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame in 2017.
External links
- Carolyn Carter photograph collection at the University of Georgia
- Dogwood Trees 1960 photograph by Carolyn Carter, archived at the Atlanta History Center