Flip Schulke

Flip Schulke
Born	June 24, 1930 New Ulm, Minnesota
Died	May 15, 2008
Nationality	American
Education	Macalester College
Known for	Photography

Graeme Phelps "Flip" Schulke[1] (June 24, 1930 – May 15, 2008)[1][2] was an American photographer.

A photograph by Schulke from Documerica

Early life and education

Schulke grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota.[3] His nickname "Flip" came about from his interest in gymnastics.[4][5] He graduated from Macalester College, then moved to Miami.[3]

Career

He taught briefly at the University of Miami, then began working as a freelance photographer.[3] He worked for Life , and covered a variety of events, including the Cuban Revolution.[3]

In 1962, he visited and photographed the Berlin Wall.[4]

Schulke began photographing the civil rights movement in the American south as early as 1956.[3]

Schulke formed a bond with civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. after an all-night conversation in 1958, and began photographing him.[3][4] King invited Schulke to photograph secret planning meetings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, though not all of the activists trusted him being there.[1] He also photographed the 1963 March on Washington[1] and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.[1] They traveled together until King's death in 1968,[6] which upset Schulke so much that he stopped covering the civil rights movement and began to work on more commercial projects.[4] In all, he took around 11,000 photographs of King, including some of his funeral.[1]

Schulke photographed Muhammad Ali,[6] Jacques Cousteau,[6] Fidel Castro[6] and John F. Kennedy.[6] He also was a photographer for the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica program in the early 1970s.[7]

Later life

Schulke died on May 15, 2008, at age 77.[3]

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin holds 300,000 of his photographs.[4][6] His photographs are also held in a variety of museums, including the Harvard Art Museums,[8] the Cleveland Museum of Art,[9] the National Museum of American History,[10] the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[11] the Minneapolis Institute of Art,[12] and the Lehigh University Art Galleries.[13]

References

1. Horne, Madison. "An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend". HISTORY. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
2. "Flip Schulke | artnet". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
3. "About". Flip Schulke Photography. 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
4. "Flip Schulke: Photographer who links US civil rights movement to Berlin Wall". BBC News. 2019-11-24. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
5. "MLK Photographer Graeme Phelps "Flip" Schulke, 77". NPPA. 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
6. "Online database, new book give access to some of Briscoe Center's vast collections". UT News. 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
7. "Personal Authority Record". catalog.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
8. Harvard. "Harvard Art Museums". harvardartmuseums.org. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
9. "Cleveland Museum of Art, Artist: Flip Schulke". Cleveland Museum of Art.
10. "Water Ski". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
11. "Exchange|Search: artist:"Flip Schulke"". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
12. "Coretta King, Martin Luther King Funeral, Atlanta, Georgia, Flip Schulke ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art". collections.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
13. Artstor. "Artstor". library.artstor.org. Retrieved 2021-03-04.