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Russell Contreras the Associated Press
Published: 23 September 2011



An iconic Shel Hershorn photograph of a hobo camp outside Denver, taken in 1972.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A photojournalist who captured iconic images of the civil rights movement but who slowly turned away from the profession to become a furniture maker after photographing a fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald has died.

Shel Hershorn's wife, Sonja, says he died Sept. 17 of pneumonia at the age of 82.

Born in Denver as Herbert Sheldon Hershorn, he began his career as a photographer at a newspaper in Casper, Wyo., and later at United Press International in Dallas in 1954. He captured images of the Freedom Riders and Alabama Gov. George Wallace attempting to block black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

Hershorn moved to Taos, N.M., in 1970 and became a furniture maker but taught photography on the side to actor Dennis Hopper among others.

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