Jim Stricklin
b. 1934 — d. 2021
James Stricklin was a groundbreaking cameraman born and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago. After graduating from DuSable High School, he served in the United States Army and was assigned to work as a photographer while stationed in Paris. He received a design degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology but was drawn to photography and filmmaking. His first assignment as a cameraman was in 1964, when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation hired him to film a story on Chicago gangs. By 1967 he was hired by NBC Chicago as a cameraman, where for the next few decades he covered political campaigns, the Civil Rights Movement, international politics, and even sports. His work later caught the attention of WMAQ-TV, the local Chicago NBC affiliate, where he became the first Black cameraman and worked for over 40 years. His camera work on documentary films has earned him two Emmys. Stricklin’s photographs of Chicago neighborhoods were included in the 1964 book With Grief Acquainted by Stanford Winfield Williamson. Stricklin’s work was featured in the Art Institute’s 2018 exhibition Never a Lovely So Real: Photography and Film in Chicago, 1950–1980 [https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/2749/never-a-lovely-so-real-photography-and-film-in-chicago-1950-1980] and in the 2025 digital catalogue [http://www.artic.edu/digital-publications/43/never-a-lovely-so-real-photography-and-film-in-chicago-1950-1980] dedicated to the exhibition.
