A History of Photography in USC Libraries Collections

Art Aragon and James Carter fight, November 14, 1951

The photo shown below is one of 70 black and white photographs taken with a film camera of a fight between Art Aragon and James Carter that took place on November 14, 1951. This was an iconic fight that Carter went on to win. The shot taken by staff photographer Montverde and published in the Los Angeles Examiner exemplifies how large a role sports photography played in people’s everyday lives. The news relied heavily on photography as more and more people demanded photos over words. Words were not enough to please the general public, hence why images were being used in an attempt to recreate and document an experience. Photography was used to report results and give a visual of what happened to those who could not attend. At this point in time, no one could pull out their phone and search results for a sporting event. Instead, people would pick up the local paper to see the results. Waking up and picking up the paper was part of many people’s daily schedules. It is important to note that this was taken on a roll of 35mm film. Twenty years prior to this fight, photographers only cared about how fast they could get their photos to a newspaper - so they would usually only take one photo that summed up the whole event. In being able to take multiple images, photographers could now create a lively experience, showing multiple angles and the dynamic movements of the fighters. The speed and overall coverage of an event in one frame were less important; rather, photographers wished to create an experience for the viewer, to be instilled into their daily lives.

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