Wallace "Kirk" Kirkland (1891–1979) was an American social worker and photojournalist who worked for Life Magazine.

[1] Kirkland was born and raised on a coconut plantation in Jamaica, the second child of Scot William Dixon and Brit Emma Elworthy.

Every summer for fifteen years he took a group of boys on a three-month long camping trip in northwestern Ontario.

Eastman Kodak Company gave Kirkland a 5 x 7 view camera to teach photography to the Boys Club.

[4] He took many local photos with the boys from Hull House, eventually choosing to leave social work and become a professional photographer in 1935.

In 1935 Kirkland opened a small photography studio in a carriage house in Oak Park Illinois, calling the area "Chicago's Bohemia."

[4] Most of his papers including negatives, prints, and scrapbooks are held at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

[6] Other papers including correspondence with his family and images of Robert Rauschenberg at work are held by the University of Wisconsin at Madison.