“If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted.. one moment. Would you capture it or just let it slip?”

If you were Charles “One Shot” Harris  you would capture this:

Charles “Teenie” Harris, as he was also often known, was an accomplished African-American photographer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Teenie photographed many celebrities who were visiting his hometown, such as Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Eleanor Roosevelt, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Duke Ellington and Muhammad Ali. However, from 1936-1975 he also chronicled life within the black neighbourhoods of the city for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of America’s oldest black newspapers. Harris took more than 80,000 images during his career and was nicknamed “One Shot” because he very rarely made his subjects sit for retakes. The candid nature of this photo is what makes it so perfect afterall. A moment like this is fleeting and could be lost in mere seconds, so another attempt to recreate something this intense yet still natural would likely fall flat. The look of elation and utter euphoria on this little boys face at the cotton candy booth is priceless, and seemingly contagious, as I feel overjoyed just looking at it!

I hope this makes you smile, and I cannot believe I just quoted Eminem.