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."
Price retired from his post in December, capping off a decades-long career devoted to capturing images of everyday Black St. Louisans.
Part of Price’s early photojournalism career was spent at the South Side and South County Journals in the late 1980s. The job brought its share of adjustments: going from a predominantly African American environment to one that was mostly white changed how he approached his work. “You have to be conscious of the environment that you're shooting in, because not every environment is the same,” he said. “You can't just walk into an environment and shoot and not understand the emotional state of the room.”
Price said his experience at the South County and South Side Journals — and returning to the American — also helped him realize that his work had earned him a diverse following across different parts of St. Louis.
“People that lived on the south side of town would say, ‘I don't see you like I used to.’ I would tell them where I was working, and [they’d] go, ‘Oh, we didn't realize that,’” Price said. ”People had actually missed me and started reading the South Side journal because they realized that that's where I was. It shocked me that so many people were happy to see me. I was very surprised by that.”
During this episode St. Louis on the Air, several listeners called in to share their memories of Price’s work and congratulations on his retirement. The callers’ accounts noted the different ways Price’s attention to Black St. Louis touched them, from scrapbooked images of community events to coverage of educational events that inspired young people to explore science and other academic fields.
Price considered photography of the Black community more than a job. Each photo, he said, preserved a part of Black life, creating a record that too often was unavailable to previous generations. “Because documentation has not been our forefront as far as recording our history,” Price said, "we've kind of, like, hit and missed it. Even for the papers that were out doing what they were supposed to do, we didn't take care of that history once it was over.”
He continued: “I chose photojournalism because, honestly, when I started freelancing for an African American newspaper, I quickly realized I didn't know my own people… to a point where it was almost kind of embarrassing. And my mother just set me straight on that. She said to me, ‘Everybody's like that.’ I started meeting people in the African American community who were doing things, and I'm thinking to myself, ‘This is the first time I've ever heard of you.’ ... That kind of made me feel like, ‘OK, you need to start paying attention here.’ Every day I was meeting someone that was moving the community forward.”
One St. Louis on the Air caller added a request of sorts to his appreciation of Price: He hoped the now-retired photographer would keep working part-time.
At that, Price laughed.
“Right now, I am not going back to anything,” he said.” I'm going back to the family room and turning on the big-screen TV and watching whatever's on.”
To hear the complete conversation, including Price’s take on using his ears (and a scanner) to get to “the real shot”; local newspapers and national magazines’ role in his choosing photojournalism; and the joys and challenges of documenting St. Louis’ Black community, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, or click the play button below.
Scroll down to see some notable images from Wiley Price's career.
