(RNS) — George Conklin, a photojournalist, longtime religion communicator and ordained minister known for an iconic 1960s photo of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died.
Conklin, a retired faculty member at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, who died on July 24 at age 93, had photographed King at the Cow Palace in San Francisco as the civil rights leader addressed an interfaith rally in 1964. Worldwide Faith News announced his death in a news release on Wednesday (Aug. 6).
In a 2015 article posted on the website of his alma mater, Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, Conklin described how his black-and-white photo showed a beam of light shining down on King: “The long evening wore on, the humidity in the vast hall increased and I could see the beam appearing. I got up and took the last frames of a 36-frame roll,” he said. He added in the comments under the article, “it was partly being in the right place at the right time. The rest is history.”
Conklin was an ordained United Church of Christ minister. A graduate of Hartford Theological Seminary, he was on the faculty of Pacific School of Religion for 15 years in the 1970s and 1980s, ultimately serving as an associate professor of media and culture studies.
“George Conklin helped PSR understand the importance of bearing witness — through story, through image, and through courageous curiosity,” …