Award-Profitable Documentary Celebrates Pioneering Black Photographers

Filmmaker/photographer Michael Blackshire, age 32, has made a documentary about pioneering Black photographers in Chicago, now of their eighties.

Blackshire’s movie “Voices in the Mirror” options interviews with octogenarian photojournalists Ovie Carter and Bob Black. It is a 2026 Student Academy Award Finalist.

“I felt that Ovie Carter and Bob Black were not talked about enough,” says Blackshire, “and needed to be discussed more in photojournalism classes. The story felt like an unsung story of a moment in time for Black history, photojournalism history, and the golden age of newspaper journalism.”

Ovie Carter and Bob Black

Ovie Carter, 80, won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting together with reporter William Mullen of the Chicago Tribune for his or her sequence “The Faces of Hunger.” Carter labored on the Tribune from 1969-2004, pioneering the idea of photographic editorials.

In addition to his Pulitzer, Carter’s work has been acknowledged by World Press Photo, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the Overseas Press Club of America, and state and native photographers’ associations.

Bob Black, 87, joined the workers of the Chicago Defender in 1965 and labored for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1968-2006. A World Press Photo winner, Black co-founded the Visual Task Force at NABJ and was one of many founders of the Chicago Alliance of African American Photographers (CAAAP).

Who is Michael Blackshire?

Blackshire earned a movie/photojournalism diploma from the University of Western Kentucky in 2020 and a grasp’s diploma in photojournalism from Ohio University in December 2025.

Based in Los Angeles, Blackshire has expertise in information pictures, finishing internships/fellowships on the Los Angeles Times (2023-24), The Atlanta Journal Constitution (2023), Chicago Tribune (2022), and The Washington Post (2021).

“When I interned at the Chicago Tribune, I saw several images of Ovie Carter, and that is when I knew I needed to tell his story,” Blackshire says. “While filming, what surprised me the most was the depth of memory that Ovie Carter and Bob Black still have — in vivid details of assignments going back to the early 1970s.”

“I became fascinated by hearing how busy they were on a regular basis, from Ovie Carter traveling to Africa for over a month to Bob Black working for Ebony and Jet magazines on his days off from the Chicago Sun-Times.”

‘Voices in the Mirror’

The title of Blackshire’s documentary, Voices within the Mirror, is itself an echo of historical past. Legendary photographer/movie director/musician Gordon Parks (1912-2006) launched a memoir in 1990 entitled “Voices in the Mirror.”

Filmmaker Blackshire seeks to doc and amplify the voices of photographers Carter and Black whereas additionally reflecting a broader level.

“Still photography will always hold a special place in the development of storytelling and from the standpoint of history,” says Blackshire. “Voices in the Mirror is a documentary to remind people that in the age of artificial intelligence and layoffs, it is always vital to have photojournalists on staff and for photojournalists to tell stories.”

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