Charles Moore: Police dogs attack a demonstrator during an anti-segregation protest. Birmingham, Ala., 1963
Charles Moore captures a scene during an anti-segregation protest in 1963 in Alabama. You can see several fierce police dogs on tight leashes held by the officers. One is staring right into the camera which emphasizes the seriousness of these types of dogs. In the middle ground to the left, there is a police officer having a hard time holding back a dog attacking a black man. The dog is showing his teeth and about to bite this man. Another dog is coming from behind the man and biting at his pants. The man with his back facing the shot being attacked by several dogs has a slit running down his left pant leg. His hands are up signifying surrender. This shot effectively shows the treatment black men and women had to go through, and the apathetic way of the officers. The angle of the shot highlights the chaos and makes the viewer feel as if they were on the street too.
O’Neill, C. (2010, March 16). Charles Moore, photographer of the civil rights Movement, dies at 79. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2010/03/charles_moore.html
The photographer is in the street close enough to have to crop the view in the camera frame. That was effective in raising national public awareness of this kind of police action taking place.