Did you know Kanye West’s father was once an AJC photographer?

Kanye West might be the one making headlines these days, but his father made history — in Atlanta.

Ray West was one of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s first Black photojournalists, and he produced acclaimed portraits in the 1970s and 80s of notables such as President Ronald Reagan, poet and activist Maya Angelou, and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy.

The elder West’s images capturing everyday life in Atlanta in those days are even more powerful than his photos of the famous. A child living in public housing poses in a delicate bonnet. Two men standing in front of boarded-up buildings shudder in the cold. Streetlights pierce the darkness of what’s described as “a haven for hookers.”