''Faith and Confidence'' is a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

–winning photograph of two-year-old Allan Weaver asking police officer

Maurice Cullinane Maurice J. Cullinane (November 29, 1932 – March 2, 2023) was the chief of police in Washington, D.C., from December 1974 to January 1978. He was captured in a 1958 Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph titled ''Faith and Confidence''. Early lif ...

a question. The 1957 image was captured by photographer

William C. Beall William C. Beall (February 6, 1911 – March 27, 1994) was an American Pulitzer-winning photographer. In 1957 he captured a photograph of two-year-old Allan Weaver and police officer Maurice Cullinane which he titled ''Faith and Confidence''. T ...

in Washington, D.C. Beall was the chief photographer for ''

The Washington Daily News ''The Washington Daily News'' (1921–1972) was an afternoon tabloid-size newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and published daily except Sundays. History ''The Washington Daily News'' was owned by the E. W. Scripps Comp ...

'' and he attended a parade in Chinatown, Washington, D.C. where he captured the award-winning image. It was printed in his newspaper and made a deep impression on readers. The image was picked up and reprinted by many other publications including ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine.

Background

worked as a staff photographer for ''

''. On September 10, 1957, he was on H Street in the

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

area of Washington, D.C., to photograph the festivities associated with the Hip Sing Chinese Merchants Association Convention. Two-year-old Allan Weaver attended the parade and he approached police officer

to ask if he was a

US Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

. The image was printed in many publications, including on the back page of ''Life'' magazine; it won the 1958

Pulitzer Prize for Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It was inaugurated in 1942 and replaced by two photojournalism prizes in 1968: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and "Pulitzer Pri ...

Description

William Beall's son Denny said his father had taken the image by chance, "He just happened to turn, he saw that and snapped it, just like that: Spin, click, and he had it". William Beall stated that he used an

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

of ''f''16 and a

shutter speed In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light (that is, when the camera's shutter (photography), shutter is open) when taking a photograph. The am ...

of of a second. One description of the image states that the young boy wanted to get closer to the parade to see the dancing dragons and the police officer told him to stop because of traffic and firecrackers. The boy's father was a Marine, stationed in Japan. The boy in the image, Allan Weaver, later described what happened in the image, "As a policeman came, I leaned up and asked him if he was a Marine". The jury for the

in 1958 consisted of Vincent Jones, Julius H. Klyman and

Ralph McGill Ralph Emerson McGill (February 5, 1898 – February 3, 1969) was an American journalist and editorialist. An anti-segregationist editor, he published the ''Atlanta Constitution'' newspaper. He was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Ju ...

. The members of the jury were unimpressed by the entries and they said there was no single image that was outstanding. When Beall won the award, the director of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

, said ''Faith and Confidence'' deserved the Pulitzer. The description of the image on the Pulitzer Prize website states ''Faith and Confidence'',

hows How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by Dov Seidman ...

a policeman patiently reasoning with a two-year-old boy trying to cross a street during a parade. The jury also said the photo was "an appealing picture which made a profound impression on readers... freezing forever a moment of childhood innocence".

Reception

Beall titled the image ''Faith and Confidence'' and it stirred emotion. Some people wrote poems and some who saw the image said it made them cry. Some people wrote letters to the police officer in the image, Maurice Cullinane. Cullinane went on to become the

Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia The Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, generally simply referred to as the Chief of Police, is the head of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Metropolitan Police Department of Was ...

in 1974. A public sculpture of Cullinane and Weaver was created from the photograph and is displayed in

Jonesboro, Georgia Jonesboro () is a city in and the county seat of Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,235 in 2020. The city's name was originally spelled Jonesborough. During the American Civil War, the final skirmish in the Atlanta ...

References

{{Pulitzer Prize 1950s photographs 1957 in Washington, D.C. 1957 works Black-and-white photographs Chinatown (Washington, D.C.) History of law enforcement in the United States Photographs of the United States Pulitzer Prize–winning photographs Photographs of people Works about police officers Works about law enforcement in the United States