Backing into His Job: a workman on a school construction project in Philadelphia hoists himself backwards over a fence today to bypass pickets from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP is protesting hiring practices on the project. A picket at left carries a sign reading "Why use tax money to support racism?" Police held back pickets and permitted workmen to pass through.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: date stamp and library stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Civil Rights Movements
• Construction
• Construction Workers
• Employment discrimination
• Injustice
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• Philadelphia
• Picketing
• Police
• Protesters
• Racial Discrimination

• Image Dimensions: 9 1/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.18 x 16.83 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 9 15/16 x 8 in. (25.24 x 20.32 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen