Ira Wilmer Counts Jr.

Early life

Ira Wilmer (Will) Counts Jr. was born on August 24, 1931, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was the son of a Little Rock tenant farmer. He, his brother, and his parents (Ira Counts Sr. and Jeanne Frances Adams Counts) were sharecroppers outside of Rose Bud (White County) and Cabot (Lonoke County) before they relocated to Jefferson County in 1936. There, the family resided at The Resettlement Administration’s Plum Bayou Home. Later, Counts attended Little Rock High School (now Central High). It was there that his journalism teacher, Edna Middlebrook, spurred his interest in photography.

During his junior year, Counts asked his mother for a Speed Graphic camera for Christmas after he had seen advertised in Boys' Life magazine. However, with his father still away fighting in World War II, his mother could only afford to buy a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye.

Education

By the time Counts started at Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) in 1949, he knew he wanted to be a news journalist. He eventually became a photographer for the college. Around the same time, he was freelancing for the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. In 1952, he received a BA in education. In 1954, he received his master’s degree in education at Indiana University (IU). Fifteen years later, Counts earned his doctorate in education at IU.

Career

While pursuing his masters degree in Bloomington, Indiana, he continued shooting for the Arkansas Democrat and also at the IU audiovisual center. In 1957, he was rehired by the Democrat as a staff photographer and shot for its Sunday Magazine. Counts was 26 when some of his most iconic images were published on September 4, 1957. Still a photographer for the Democrat, Counts captured white demonstrators and the National Guard gathering outside Central High. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had called the guard to block integration. One of Counts’ most famous images captures African American Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by an angry white mob of students after being denied entrance at Central High. He recalled Eckford never losing her composure. "She just remained so dignified, so determined in what she was doing," he said. That photo, and four others of Counts’ from that day, were published on the cover of the Democrat. In his 1999 book, A Life is More Than a Moment," Counts details how he captured the shot. He states that he wore an inconspicuous red shirt and slacks while shooting to blend in with the crowd as a way to avoid looking like a journalist. He also notes that on his Nikon S2 camera, he used a wide-angled lens that gave him an advantage over other photographers. Others typically shot with large Speed Graphic press cameras that involved reloading the camera after each individual shot. Counts also shot many exposures to ensure a winning shot. His heavy bracketing approach was greatly inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson who often shot many photographs of the same scene to ensure capturing the best representative shot. Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery, one of the white students captured screaming at Eckford in one of Counts’ infamous photos, met in 1997 after a successful reconciliation was organized by Counts and his wife, Vivian.

Only a few weeks after the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford was taken, Counts photographed black journalist Alex Wilson being kicked in the face by a brick-wielding white man while a crowd watched. The image was, too, captured in front of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The image shows Wilson doubled over, yet he clutches his hat in one hand. He later told Counts that the hat was "the only piece of dignity I had." The mob trailed Wilson for a block and continued kicking him when he was down. Counts wrote in a story accompanying the photo that Wilson wanted to retain his dignity, and refused to fight back. Hired in 1963, Counts was a faculty member in the education department at Indiana University for 32 years. Four years after becoming a faculty member, Counts earned his doctorate in education. In 1996, Counts published A Life is More Than a Moment." The title came from a line spoken to him by Hazel Massery, the same woman seen snarling and shouting at Eckford in his iconic 1957 photograph. Massery states that she "deeply regretted the photograph for she had become the poster child of the hate generation." She apologized to Eckford years later and the two eventually reconciled in 1996 and have since become friends. Counts died of cancer in Bloomington, Indiana in 2001.

Accomplishments

The Pulitzer Prize jury for photography nominated Counts for his images captured at Central High School, but the jury was overruled by the board since four Pulitzers prizes had already been awarded for that event alone. Later, Counts won a first place award by the National Press Photographer’s Association and first place in the spot news category for the fifteenth annual "News Picture of the Year Competition" for his photo of Alex Wilson. The image was also selected by the Encyclopædia Britannica as one of the world’s fifty most memorable news photos in the last fifty years. The photograph was said to have led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to protect African Americans during the integration effort. Counts went on to work for the Associated Press. He developed some of the most renowned photojournalism departments in the United States and, in 1996, he was inducted in the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

Marriage

Married to Vivian Counts.

Publications

• Will Counts, A Photographic Legacy, Ira Will Counts Jr., 1979 • Will Counts, The Magnificent 92: Indiana’s Courthouses, Quarry Books (1991) • Will Counts, Monroe County in Focus (1993) • Will Counts, A Life is More than a Moment, Will Campbell, Ernest Dumas, Robert S. McCord, Indiana University Press (1996) • Will Counts, Bloomington: Past and Present, Indiana University Press (2002)