Will Counts

Ira Wilmer Counts, Jr. (1931-2001) was born in Little Rock and his family sharecropped near Rose Bud and then outside Cabot before moving to the Resettlement Administration's Plum Bayou Homestead in 1936. Back in Little Rock for high school, Counts gained his initial interest in photography from a journalism teacher, Edna Middlebrook. Counts recalled this experience. "My first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye (a simple box camera). I asked for a Speed Graphic (an expensive professional camera) for Christmas, but with Dad still in the service Mom got me something she could afford."In 1949, Counts entered Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) and helped pay his way by working as the school's photographer and as a freelance shooter for the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. He earned his master's degree in education at Indiana University, then worked for four months at the Arkansas Democrat in 1955, as a photographer. He spent two years in the audiovisual center at Indiana University and was rehired at the Arkansas Democrat in June, 1957, as a staff photographer for the Sunday Magazine.Counts' first powerful images of the desegregation crisis at Central High School appeared on September 4, 1957. "I believe I was the first Arkansas Democrat photographer to use a 35 mm camera rather than the older, bulkier cameras like the Speed Graphic. Being able to shoot faster with a smaller and lighter camera gave me an advantage in those crowd melees."The Arkansas Democrat submitted Counts' photographs from Central High for the Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzer jury for photography unanimously recommended that Counts be awarded the prize, but the board overruled the jury, apparently reasoning that bestowing four prizes for coverage of a single event would be too many. (Two Pulitzers that year went to the Arkansas Gazette and another to an Associated Press reporter for the Central High story.) Counts' photograph of journalist Alex Wilson being kicked did win one important award. It took first place in the spot news category of the 15th annual "News Picture of the Year" competition, then sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. It was also selected by Encyclopaedia Britannica as one of the world's 50 most memorable news pictures of the last 50 years. Following brief stints at the Associated Press in Chicago and Indianapolis, Counts earned his education doctorate at Indiana University, then helped develop one of the best-regarded photojournalism departments in the country at IU in Bloomington. For his accomplishments, he was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Will Counts is the author of three books: "A Photographic Legacy," (1979) which updates rural Arkansas scenes shot by Farm Security Administration photographers such as Ben Shahn and Walker Evans in the 1930s; "The Magnificent 92" features Counts photographs of every Indiana county courthouse; and "Monroe County in Focus" (1993) features photos from that Indiana County. (AAC)