Opening 27.06 – 19:00

Curators: François Cheval and Yasmine Chemali

Stephen Shames was twenty years old when, as a student at Berkeley, he came into contact with the beginnings of what would later become the Black Panther Party. From that moment onwards, he followed the history of this movement for emancipation within the Civil Rights movement until its dissolution. Benefitting from the friendship of the principle leaders, in particular Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the photographer could report freely on all the forms of a political organisation that wanted to be involved in every aspect of the African-American community, from food aid to education, health to security. A relatively unknown aspect of the Black Panther Party, which these photographs bring to light, is the place occupied by activists within the organisation. Women, some of whom would go on to achieve certain notoriety (Gloria Abernethy, Evon Carter, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Ericka Huggins, Adrienne Humphrey), were on the front line of every struggle. They were the ones who set up free breakfasts for schoolchildren, medical clinics and schools, distributed the media and so forth. Of all ages and walks of life, they represented two-thirds of the organisation’s activists. As speakers and organisers, these activists were committed to redefining the role of women within the organisation itself! This lends an original dimension to the story, providing it with a distinctive resonance.

Biography

Born in 1947 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Stephen Shames was a student at the University of Berkeley in California when, at the age of 20, he met Bobby Seale, founder of the Black Panther Party, during an anti-Vietnam War protest in San Francisco. As the party’s privileged photographer, he became its main chronicler for seven years, from 1967 to 1973. Feeling more like an activist than a mere bystander, he decided to make photography a form of political engagement and the Black Panthers’ struggle his primary battleground. As a photojournalist, Stephen Shames captured life on the streets of the Bronx, particularly focusing on youth (‘Bronx Boys’, 1970-1980).

Known for his documentary and socially conscious work, he delved into issues of social misery and poverty, particularly that of children, a subject on which he testified before the United States Senate in 1986. In his own words, his approach is ‘to give a voice to those who are denied it’, without staging or resorting to pathos. In particular, he addresses child poverty and racial or prison issues to draw attention to social problems in the United States, much like photographers Lewis Hine, Jacob Riis, or Marion Post Wolcott did before him.

Stephen Shames has received numerous awards for his work, and his prints are in the largest public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York), Metropolitan Museum (New York), Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC), George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY), International Center of Photography (New York), Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, DC), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The New York Public Library, The Bancroft Library (Berkeley), University of California (Berkeley), The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), The Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN), Oakland Museum of California, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York). He has authored over ten monographs, including Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale (Abrams Books, 2016) and The Black Panthers (Aperture, 2006).

This exhibition takes part of the Rencontres d’Arles program as part of the Grand Arles Express manifestation.

© Stephen Shames
Earlene Coleman préparant les sacs de provisions
à distribuer au Laney College,
mars 1972,
Oakland, Californie.