{"id":387,"date":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?p=387"},"modified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T05:23:05","slug":"the-black-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a time of rich rebel iconography, no other revolutionarily minded group of the era played with images as well as the Black Panther Party in the years 1965-1972. For all the posters of Che Guevara, it was but one picture of one man on every girl\u2019s dormroom wall. The Panthers were the embodiment of political committedness, civil rights, righteous struggle, and they were as sexy as hell in their Afros, berets \u201cpatterned after the Resistance,\u201d their shades, and their leather jackets. The conscious eroticism of their imagery obscures the relevance of their political programme, \u201cWhat We Want, What We Believe,\u201d whose 10 points still resonate today in America. It obscures the infighting that every movement has, with often fatal consequences, and it obscured the war carried out against them by J Edgar Hoover\u2019s Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Richard Nixon\u2019s COINTELPRO programme that served to defend a still racist, conservative regime against most forms of democratic change and played into the hands of the militants in the Panther Party.<\/p>\n

Of all the photographers of the era who covered the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, perhaps none is as important as Stephen Shames whose work is now collected in a book, The Black Panthers, published by Aperture. Panther founding chairman Bobby Seale records that he invited Shames to be the photographer for the movement\u2019s weekly newspaper, The Black Panther, and thus \u201cembedded\u201d with them. It is this unusual access and intimacy to all aspects of the Black Panther Party that makes this the most important document to date. <\/p>\n

His images of Bobby Seale, Huey P Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, and others at work and play are vital to the understanding of the movement. Not only did he create the iconic images of the BPP, he also photographed their performative, public presence with its press conferences, sit-ins and rallies, he also documented their efforts to effect political change by encouraging self-help, self-determination, social work, and the Panthers\u2019 education programmes as much as he showed images of their armed, self-defence efforts in the wake of police shootings that claimed the lives of several of their members.<\/span><\/p>\n


From his first shots of Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton from a 15 April 1967 demonstration against the Viet-Nam War at the University of California, Berkeley, through the arrests and sieges in Oakland, California, and New Haven, Connecticut, and the trials and funerals of George Jackson, Bobby Hutton, and others, Shames was there and accepted as an insider by the Panthers. At a talk a few years ago in Oakland, he relates that he was asked by an audience member if he had been a party member, he said, \u201cNo, I was a photographer.\u201d Former Panthers in the audience got up and said, \u201cSteve, we always considered you a member of the party.\u201d In the introduction to his book Shames writes, \u201cThat is a badge I wear with honor.\u201d Other photographers, notably Jeffrey Scales, Pirkle Jones, and Michelle Vignes, were there as well, but it is Shames\u2019s images that stand out as the most complete document to date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Kouwenhoven<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a> Stephen Shames<\/span>
Published by Aperture
\u00a319.50
152pp Hardback<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Black Panthers - FOTO8<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Black Panthers - FOTO8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Shames Published by Aperture \u00a319.50 152pp Hardback \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FOTO8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jon\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137\"},\"headline\":\"The Black Panthers\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\"},\"wordCount\":524,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\",\"name\":\"The Black Panthers - FOTO8\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Black Panthers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\",\"name\":\"FOTO8\",\"description\":\"The home of photojournalism.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization\",\"name\":\"FOTO8\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1\",\"width\":124,\"height\":51,\"caption\":\"FOTO8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foto8\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137\",\"name\":\"Jon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jon\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/author\/wpadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Black Panthers - FOTO8","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Black Panthers - FOTO8","og_description":"Stephen Shames Published by Aperture \u00a319.50 152pp Hardback \u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/","og_site_name":"FOTO8","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/","article_published_time":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","author":"Jon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jon","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/"},"author":{"name":"Jon","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137"},"headline":"The Black Panthers","datePublished":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/"},"wordCount":524,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/","name":"The Black Panthers - FOTO8","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-19T05:23:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-black-panthers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Black Panthers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/","name":"FOTO8","description":"The home of photojournalism.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#organization","name":"FOTO8","url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/foto8logo_blk.gif?fit=124%2C51&ssl=1","width":124,"height":51,"caption":"FOTO8"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Foto8\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/foto8"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/52655249f7e3f6eff4e0fe2540d65137","name":"Jon","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6993c5976717725ffe3a4e678a401748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jon"},"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/author\/wpadmin\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ejRI-6f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/the-worlds-top-photographers-photojournalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":0},"title":"The World’s Top Photographers: Photojournalism","author":"Jon","date":"28 Oct 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Andy Steel Published by Rotovision\u00a325 176pp Hardback","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c131-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2091,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/jeff-wall-the-complete-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":1},"title":"Jeff Wall: The Complete Edition","author":"Jon","date":"25 Jan 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Guy Lane reviews Jeff Wall- The Complete Edition, a survey of Wall's range of works.","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/blogs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\u00a9 Jeff Wall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/wall_wind.jpg?fit=470%2C290&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/bleed\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":2},"title":"Bleed","author":"Jon","date":"19 Dec 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Simon Norfolk Published by Dewi Lewis \u00a375 64pp Hardback\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c131-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/v5n4\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":3},"title":"Vol.5 No.4","author":"Jon","date":"31 Mar 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Back Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Back Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/in-print\/back-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3760,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/black-sea-postcards\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":4},"title":"Black Sea Postcards","author":"Jon","date":"11 Oct 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Black Sea, straddling Europe and Asia, links north to south and east to west with oil, gas, transportation and trade routes. Mathias Depardon departs Istanbul to travel around its shores and see how this region is changing.","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c129-photo-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/blacksea02_280.jpg?fit=280%2C230&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/pictures-from-here-postcards-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":5},"title":"Pictures From Here \/ Postcards Home","author":"Jon","date":"28 Oct 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunil GuptaPublished by Autograph\/Boot\u00a319.95 Ingrid PollardPublished by Autograph\/Boot\u00a319.95 each","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/category\/online\/c131-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}