Alex Harsley purchased his first real camera, an Exakta XV, in 1959.
10 Facts About Alex Harsley
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Alex Harsley's first job in New York was a bike messenger, allowing him to multitask as a street photographer.
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Alex Harsley was the first black photographer in the New York City District Attorney's office under Frank Hogan.
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Alex Harsley has photographed John Coltrane and Ray Charles at the Apollo, Sarah Vaughn at Birdland, Muhammad Ali, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Shirley Chisholm's nomination for President.
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Alex Harsley photographed activists Harry Belefonte, Coretta Scott King, Paul Robeson Jr and Angela Davis when they met for the first time at a benefit in 1972.
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Alex Harsley began working in video and digital photography, creating experimental video works and collaborating with artist David Hammons with many of his performance works.
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Hammons' "Phat Free" video was a collaboration with Alex Harsley and was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial.
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Alex Harsley founded Minority Photographers, Inc in 1971 in the Lower East Side in New York.
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Alex Harsley gave Andres Serrano his first exhibition in New York City.
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Alex Harsley married Shelagh Krueger and has a daughter named Kendra Krueger who has been helping to archive his work.