Legendary photographer Gene Herrick, who worked for The Associated Press and captured some of America’s most iconic moments, passed away Friday at the age of 97.
Herrick passed away in a nursing home in Rich Creek, Virginia, surrounded by loved ones, according to The Associated Press. The photographer is best known for his iconic photos capturing the Korean War, Rosa Parks getting her fingerprints taken, the trial of Emmett Till’s killers and the release of Martin Luther King Jr. from jail.
Herrick worked with The Associated Press for 28 years, capturing historic event after historic event. At 16, the photographer joined the AP as an office assistant in Columbus, Ohio. It wasn’t until he was asked to photograph a Cleveland Indians baseball game that Herrick’s career as a professional photographer began.
“They’ve got to be stupid,” Herrick told the outlet. “Me cover a ball game for the AP?”
From there, Herrick was promoted to AP photographer in Memphis. In 1950, he volunteered to photograph the Korean War.
In 1956, Herrick captured the moment Rosa Parks had her fingerprints taken by a white police officer, the event that followed her refusal to move to the back of a public bus. In the same year, he memorialized the moment Martin Luther King Jr. was released from jail, snapping a shot of King’s wife, Coretta Scott, planting a kiss on his happy cheek.
“I knew he was going to be let out of jail that morning,” Herrick said in a 2020 interview with The Associated Press. “And all these people were out there on the steps waiting for him, including his wife, who reached out and gave him a big kiss.”
“God and the AP have given me opportunities I could never have had,” Herrick told the AP in 2018. “I mean, I’m the luckiest kid in the world to have done what I’ve done.”
Herrick retired from the AP in 1972. He continued to work with the developmentally disabled in Columbus, according to the outlet. At the age of 91, Herrick was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame at Virginia Commonwealth University. (RELATED: AP Wins Award For Photo Of Naked, Mutilated Woman Murdered By Hamas)
“He was so proud to be a journalist. That was his life,” Hylton said. “He loved The Associated Press. He loved the people of the AP. He was so grateful to have had all the adventures that he had.”