Narrative: The South Carolina photographer who turned a childhood passion right into a traditionally vital profession

Cecil Williams is well-known as a chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina. The photojournalist was born and raised within the city of Orangeburg the place he nonetheless resides, as does the museum which he based. The South Carolina Civil Rights Museum is house to tons of of pictures Williams captured that bore witness to the realities of striving for racial equality.

In 2024, Williams joined University of South Carolina historical past professor Bobby Donaldson at StoryCorps to share the origin story of his love of images, and the second it developed from a passion right into a passionate, lifelong profession.

TRANSCRIPT:

Donaldson: For over seven a long time, you have got been working as a photographer, working to doc the motion and a lot else about African American life and expertise. How did all of it start? How did you get began?

Williams: The photographer in my house, in my family as a youth rising up, was my brother. He was 5 years older, and he had the digital camera within the household. He was the guardian of the digital camera. And it was a Kodak Baby Brownie Special. It value $2.25 from Sears Roebuck. That was one thing that was defined to me as he was giving it to me by my mom, as a result of she had purchased the digital camera, mail order. And I had earlier, than receiving the digital camera, started to sketch and draw. But my drawings had been type of crude, and I by no means appreciated them. And so, after I acquired that digital camera, it opened a brand new door of alternative as a result of I used to be in a position to, you would possibly say, fulfill that interior urge to create and to seize issues. And the digital camera answered that. During these days, while you took the {photograph}, that was just the start. There was one other journey forward of you since you needed to put movie within the digital camera. And then after you set the movie within the digital camera and take the pictures, then you would need to get them developed and printed. So that was one other a part of it. And then after we would take the bus to downtown Orangeburg from our house on Quick Street, and downtown was about three miles away, we might take them by the pharmacy, the movie, to be developed. And then, after all, I might see what I’ve accomplished. But it fascinated me, the texture of images and the truth that you could possibly freeze a second in time, I assume, is what sort of drew me into it. And I considered the digital camera as being, like a magic field. And so just about, that is when it began for me as a photographer. And I owe my brother, after all, the credit score for that. And additionally, my mom, as a result of additionally they, my mom and father additionally purchased the movie for me to make use of. And after all, that was essential, after which pay for creating. So, all that value cash.

Donaldson: So, in some respects, you took what was a toy for some individuals, just a little passion…you made it a instrument, and then you definitely did one thing else. You made it a profession. What you’ve got informed me earlier than, “a hustle.”

Williams: Yes.

Donaldson: What sparked that transition, that this isn’t only a gadget, that you simply had been type of enjoying round with within the neighborhood. This grew to become your profession.

Williams: Well, I type of discovered, the craft of images and how you can take higher footage by actually being a pest round the home. I might take my mother and father and the opposite members of the family getting dressed and never being ready as they wished to be. And so, I might give them at very unposed moments, which they dreaded. So, they’d usually say, “Here comes the camera!” you realize. It grew to become a profession at about 12, 13 years previous after I did my first wedding ceremony for $35. $35 in at present’s cash would perhaps be about $100 or $150, I assume. That was the launching. That level, if I might hint it again, can be after I started to commercialize what was a passion right into a occupation.