I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.

And now, I feel at 85, I really feel that I'm just ready to start.

Photography was my choice of weapons.

So I went to Chicago in 1940, I think, '41, and the photographs that I made there, aside from fashion, were things that I was trying to express in a social conscious way.

I'd become sort of involved in things that were happening to people. No matter what color they be, whether they be Indians, or Negroes, the poor white person or anyone who was I thought more or less getting a bad shake.

Washington, D.C. in 1942 was not the easiest place in the world for a Negro to get along.

The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination, against poverty, against racism.