For more than four decades in the middle of the 20th century, Charles "Teenie" Harris and his camera were a mainstay on the streets of Pittsburgh. He took photos for an African American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, and earned the nickname "One Shot" for his uncanny ability to capture the perfect image in a single take.

Self Portrait in Harris Studio, 1940. | (Teenie Harris/Agfa Safety Film, Carnegie Museum of Art, Heinz Family Fund)

Born in Pittsburgh in 1908, Harris grew up in the Hill District, the city's center of African American life and culture, with his mother and two brothers. Harris' formal education ended after the eighth grade, but he soon picked up odd jobs and a camera, capturing the everyday moments of the people around him. Harris opened his own photography studio, Harris Studios, in the late 1930s and joined the Pittsburgh Courier as a staff photographer, where he was paid $35 a week, in 1941.

During his four-decade career at the Pittsburgh Courier, Harris took more than 70,000 photographs, offering a fascinating window into the black urban experience during some of the most pivotal years of the Civil Rights movement.

Teenie Harris Photographs: Elections, on exhibit now at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, showcases 25 remarkable election images pulled from his extensive collection. Below, a selection from the exhibit:

A man holds the polling booth curtain open, circa 1953. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

October 1949. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

President John F. Kennedy speaking in Monessen, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 13, 1962. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Two men, including police officer Sidney Wilson on the right, assist centenarian Duke Finch out of a polling place, circa 1945-1950. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Progressive Matrons club officers pose for a group picture in November 1941. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Picketing hospital workers in Oakland, Pennsylvania. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

The Pittsburgh Courier building decorated with bunting and a large image of the 1940 Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Linda Starkey hands a bouquet to presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm, surrounded by Delta Sigma Theta sorority members, on March 5, 1972. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Orson Welles and Harry Truman in front of a police station in the Hill District, circa 1944. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Circa 1944. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

Vice President Richard Nixon greets the crowd from his car in Hill District, October 1960. | (Teenie Harris/Heinz Family Fund)

**Teenis Harris Photographs: Elections is on view now through Dec. 5, 2016, at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh**