LIFT EVERY VOICE Photography by Cecil Williams
May 14 – August 5, 2013
A native of Orangeburg Cecil Williams, a graduate of Claflin University is a professional photographer, videographer and author/publisher of three books.
By the age of nine, he as an avid photographer, having fallen in love with the photography after acquiring a hand-me-down camera from his family. By 15, he was working professionally and as a freelancer for such publications as JET, the Afro-American and the Pittsburgh Courier and as a stringer for The Associated Press.
Over the years, Williams’ photographs have appeared in thousands of publications in the United States and abroad. In the 1970s, he founded and published View South News, first as a quarterly magazine and later as a newspaper. Through the small press operation of his business, he has published 49 books for clients throughout the South.
In 1996, he was the writer, producer and director of “Freedom and Justice,” an 86-minute film documentary. His publication, “Freedom and Justice: Four Decades of the Civil Rights Movement As Seen By a Black Photographer of the Deep South,” is one of the most comprehensive sources of photographs from that era. In May 2006, he published a sequel photo-documentary entitled “Outside the Box in Dixie.”
In February 1994, Williams received a commendation from the S.C. General Assembly for the photographic exhibit “Quiet Heroes.” In August 1995, he was selected by the S.C. Arts Commission to participate as artist-in-residence at William A. Perry High School in Columbia.