[4] He left for a year in an attempt to open a branch of his photography studio in Atlanta, GA, before returning to Tuskegee to serve as the college's official photographer for four decades.
[4] Shot in black and white, Polk's subjects ranged from famous African Americans such as George Washington Carver to working-class and poor Alabamians.
[5] Unlike Battey—who preferred soft-focus shots and idealizing poses—Polk developed a style in which sharp details and strong lighting showcased his subjects' individuality.
His approach is evident in a comment he made about a 1932 photograph from the "Old Characters" series entitled The Boss: In his early work, Polk used a Kodak box camera with a Graphex lens.
[5] One of Polk's most influential images was a 1941 photograph of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in a plane with pilot Charles Anderson, who was the Tuskegee Institute's chief flight instructor.