For award-winning photographer Wiley Price, taking pictures for the St. Louis American newspaper was more than a job. Behind the lens, he said, he became known as “the tall, skinny Black guy with a mustache” who often showed up at news events with multiple cameras at the ready.
Looking back on a career of more than 40 years, Wiley described his photography as a labor of love for his community.
“I felt like my people needed me to illustrate who they are,” he said. “When you first come into this [work], you’re thinking, ‘It doesn’t make a difference.’ But it does. I was at a Black newspaper that was very, very interested in its own community and covering it well.”…